Shatter Me
by pineapplegoddess
Summary: After quitting school to take care of medical bills for her Grandfather, Skyla Lock runs into an old friend at her dead end job. After catching up she realizes he is more mysterious than he used to be with his new secretive job. It isn't until she gets sucked into the chaos relating to a glowing orb that she realizes she's heard the stories before. Canon. Slow Burn Stephen Hart/OC
1. Reunion

**Hello readers. Here is the beginning of my Primeval story that I have been working on for years. Please review and chapters will get uploaded faster. For those of you who are frequent readers of mine and are waiting for other stories, no worries. I am back and will update as much as I can. Happy reading!**

 _My life changed forever on that day so many years ago._

 _I could never understand how people could say that. It was just too corny._

 _But this time, in my world, it was true._

 _I never knew how many different things there were in this world._

 _I never knew about love, hate, and how many different things could be here and now._

 _I never understood how people could hate others, risk their own lives for others out of love._

 _Sure I knew what love and hate was, I wasn't a total moron._

 _I just didn't understand how someone could love someone else so much to sacrifice themselves to save the other._

 _I mean I could understand it from a parental point of view. But love? No that was just crazy._

 _And hate…_

 _How could you hate someone? Let alone so much that it almost consumes you?_

 _All in all, I wouldn't change a thing that my life has now become._

Present Day

I walked to work at the tea shoppe. I hoped today would be a fast one, I just wanted to get back home to my flat and just sleep. Everything in the last couple months had just been plain shit.

My grandfather was just getting worse in his home. It had killed me checking him in somewhere, but I couldn't take it anymore. He knew it too, he was the one who brought it up during one of his sane episodes.

Dementia was the damnedest thing, especially the early stages. It was like memories fired back from forgotten times, but then the person would get lost in them and forget to come back to the present. It was almost like traveling back in time and getting stuck there, but in your own memories, in your own head.

I just wanted it to stop. I wanted it to stop for his sake as well as my own. When he was lucid he looked like a kicked puppy, asking how long he was out, what he had said, what he had done. They were never violent but sometimes it would escalate to where violence could happen. It could almost be compared to a night terror or a really bad post traumatic stress episode. I knew eventually he would lose all grasp on the present day and live permanently in the past.

The things he would say were from a nightmare. He would talk of other worlds, glowing orbs, prehistoric creatures like he was living in it. It was so vivid the details and descriptions he would tell me. At one point a lightbulb went off in my head, he was remembering the stories he would tell me as a child. They were all too familiar. Those stories were one of the many reasons I went to the University to study history, prehistory more specifically. But that in of itself was another world, another life. Not in the literal sense, it was only a year ago, but it seemed like ages ago.

I walked into the shoppe, the little annoying bell tingling above me signaling I had walked in.

"Morning Skyla." my coworker said behind the bar.

"Morning Hannah." I said as I waved going into the back to get my apron.

Another day as a barista, another day in my own personal hell.

Like every other day people came and went, students mostly. They would come in and get their coffee and tea, either leaving or sometimes stayed behind to study for their upcoming finals. I envied those students. The ones who looked like they were so stressed, they looked like they belonged in Bedlam. But nevertheless I wanted to be them. People would think I was daft but I miss the University… I missed learning. I missed being around like minded people. I missed discussions on evolutionary biology, the missing links of man, dinosaurs, fossils, all of it.

To dampen my mood further it had begun raining outside. Not that rain got me down, I actually loved it, just not when I had walked to work. And it wasn't a nice pleasant rain fall, it was down right pouring. With a deep sigh I turned around to clean the counter against the wall, scrubbing the dried sugar syrups off of the counter. The bell on the door seemed to ding for the hundredth time that day. I knew Hannah was at the register so I ignored the person continuing on my quest to get rid of the sugary mess.

"Good Afternoon sir, what's your fancy?" Hannah said in her usual chipper voice. I rolled my eyes with a smirk, she only used that line when someone attractive came though the shoppe.

"Just a tea please." the man said. I stopped scrubbing, I knew that voice. Could it really be? It had been so long I could be mistaken. I peeked over my shoulder and sucked in my breath. It was him, it was Stephen Hart from the University. I couldn't believe it! Our conversations late into the night all those months ago about various topics. Would he even remember me? After all I was just another student.

"Name?" Hannah said cheekily with the pen in hand waiting patiently to hear him speak again, to hear his sweet voice reveal his name. My heart thudded in my chest, no time like the present to see if he remembered me or not. With a deep breath I turned around.

"It's Stephen." I spoke up from behind Hannah. This caught his attention as he looked past the flirtatious woman to me. Our eyes locked and I could see recognition in those blue depths.

"Skyla?" he asked with his smirk. His smirk was different from others, when he smirked it was more like a small smile. Not over exaggerated where his eye would crease. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here." I said with as much pride as I could muster. Hannah turned around she looked at me with wide surprised eyes and a smile. She moved past me to began making his tea.

"But I thought-" he began before I let my pride fall.

"It's a long story." I said with a forced smile.

"Well how about you join me for dinner sometime and tell me." he said, suave as always. I knew the man was a flirt, sitting in lectures he would always eye the female students, me being included. Knowing what my answer should be, which was a 'no', I couldn't bring myself to say it. It had been so long since I had talked to anyone from a year ago. Hannah gave him his tea and turned back to me giving me a look as if to say I better say yes.

I exhaled my breath and gave in.

"I get off at 7." I said with a smirk, he smiled back and nodded.

"Well, I'll be back at 7." he said as he grabbed his tea, turned around and left.

"Now, you have to tell me all about that." Hannah said with a huge smile. "You've been here nearly 6 months and I have never seen you talk to a man let alone agree to go to supper with them."

"He's just an old friend. That's all." I said as I continued to work acting like it was nothing.

"Right and I'm a natural blonde." she said sarcastically. I laughed at her comment, knowing she was definitely not a blonde.

"We went to the university together, I was in a couple of classes with him. That's all." I explained a little further. She nodded.

"Well, if things don't flow that way, give him my number ya?" she said. I rolled my eyes and walked around the counter. I started to bust the tables thinking about all of it.

It was just this morning when I was thinking about those lectures specifically, longing to be there. Low and behold Stephen walks into the shoppe I work at. It had nearly been a year since my last lecture with Nick Cutter with Stephen by his side. Honestly I couldn't believe he remembered me. I mean yes, I had study groups with him, and we had often had conversations on Evolutionary Zoology. But for the professor's lab technician to remember little old me? Honestly it gave me butterflies. I had always fancied him, but not enough to do anything. It was weird, the way feelings of like and love coursed through people. Sometimes they fancied a person just enough to appreciate their looks and personality some fall head over heels. I was somewhere on the latter side. He was fun to watch, look at, admire. I appreciated his company but learning was my passion.

"If you want to leave early to change and get ready I'll cover for you." Hannah said from behind me as I scrubbed some dried jelly off the table.

"I don't think thats necessary." I responded. "But I appreciate it." I glanced over at the clock it would be a very long three hours of work.


	2. Catching Up

It was 6:45 and my nerves were on fire. There were multiple reasons I had stayed away from anyone I knew from a year ago. What would I tell Stephen? The truth? He would do exactly what Elizabeth had done, turn tail and run. My family was crazy, no one wanted to get mixed with that. I couldn't blame them honestly, I would do the same thing. If I didn't tell him everything, would it be considered lying or just leaving parts out? I walked into the restroom and checked out my reflection. I took my hair out of the clip letting it fall around my face. The only thing that had changed about me was my hair length. I still shied away from makeup, just a little to accent my eyes and a light colored gloss for my lips. I was a simple woman. Nothing fancy but not too plain, a happy medium. I nodded at my reflection and walked out of the room walking towards where we stored the aprons.

As soon as I hung my apron up I heard the bell ring on the door. I grabbed my bag and turned around to see Stephen waiting for me off to the side of the door. I smiled and walked over to him. Trying to hide the fact I was completely nervous.

 _Why the hell are you nervous? You've been to dinner with him before. Getting pizza and bringing it back to his office that he shared with Nick for the three of you was not being alone!_ I argued with myself in my head.

"Ready?" he asked holding out his arm for my to take, with that infamous smile that was rarely seen. The one that reached his eyes, not the cocky smirk as usual.

"I sure am." I said the smile still on my face, I linked my arm with his. I turned to look back at Hannah as she gave me a thumbs up as we walked out the door. The rain had relatively stopped.

We walked down the street in silence, it wasn't awkward per se but it was different. We were sizing each other up, at least I was. He hasn't changed at all, the same clothes, same hair, same everything. We walked along countless restaurants, I wondered when he would stop and choose one, my stomach was beginning to growl. As if on cue he stopped in front of The Blues Kitchen.

"Cajun sound good?" he asked as he stopped in front of the restaurant.

"Always." I smiled as we walked in. You could smell the various spices in the air. I wondered if he remembered that I loved Cajun food, or if this was a coincidence. We were seated by the window at the far end of the building. We settled into our seats, taking off our jackets so the rouge rain drops could dry and not get on the table.

"I like the hair." he pointed to the locks around my face. "It was shorter before, right?"

"Yes, quite." I explained not really knowing what else to say. I smiled to him, he really was a handsome fellow.

"So, that long story?" He asked breaking the ice.

"Oh, yes, on how I got my barista lifestyle." I said with a snicker. His smile faltered into a serious face for a moment.

"Skyla what happened? You were Nick's prized student. If it hadn't been for that internship you told us I was sure he was going to fire me and hire you in my place." I let out an amused laugh.

"I wasn't that good." I explained. "I just enjoyed his lectures and made sure I did great work."

"Still." he pressed on for more information. This was it, how much did I tell him?

"My - Uh- my grandfather, he's sick. I've been taking care of him for the past year. I had to quit the internship so I could get a job and afford to put him in a home." I explained, Stephen's face softened a bit. It was mostly the truth, just leaving out important bits of detail.

"I'm so sorry Skyla." he muttered out. The waitress came over and took our orders leaving us alone again.

"It happens." I said with a sad face. "I figured this was my job. Life happens right?"

He nodded with his long face, this is not how I wanted the night to go. With a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips I decided to change the course of the conversation.

"What about you? Are you still working with Professor Cutter?" Stephen smiled, thankful that the conversation had been changed.

"We still work together just in a different field." I gave him a quizzical look that prompted him to continue. "We don't work at the university anymore." he explained. I could tell he was holding something back but it was frankly none of my business.

"Pity, you're not at the University. I bet there are a lot of upset students." I said with a smirk. "Females especially." He smirked at that comment.

"Yes, I can imagine." He said as he took a drink of his water. "Not a lot of free time with my new job."

"So, why me then?" I asked out of curiosity. Honestly I was digging to see if he fancied me in anyway.

"What do you mean?" He looked utterly confused at the question.

"Why would you ask me to dinner when you don't have a lot of free time? I'm sure you have others who would love to spend some time with you." I explained not trying to be too blunt about it. He smiled almost coyly.

"I've always fancied our conversations." he admitted, smiling at his answer. My eyes widened in disbelief as I let out a laugh.

"Our conversations? That's the route your going to go?" I smiled to him.

"Is it working?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Maybe." I muttered as our food arrived. This would be an interesting night to say the least.


	3. Post Date

Dinner was full of laughs, memories, flirting and evolutionary theories. I think I impressed Stephen with what I could remember let alone the new things I had found. Just because I wasn't at the university didn't mean I wasn't continuing my research.

Stephen and I walked slowly in the direction of my home. The rain hadn't fully stopped, leaving a light drizzle upon London. Arm linked in arm as we were before the date we strode down the street, not really talking but enjoying each others company. I couldn't help but wonder where this date would lead us. Would we have a second? Was this just a hello, nice to see you dinner? Or was he expecting something in a physical sense? I was never a woman who expected things from a man, especially on a first date. I never expected a second date let alone a relationship. Hell, second dates happened so rarely to begin with. I also wasn't a loose woman either. I wasn't one to get physical on the first date. Maybe second or third, depends on the guy and the date itself.

This though- this situation was different from others.

First off it had been 6 months before I had even gone on a date, let alone enjoyed a date.

Second, I knew Stephen. We had spent many days and nights together studying, talking. Yes, we were never really alone during those time so that made it different from now. But nevertheless we had bonded at a point.

As we approached the door to my flat my heart started to flutter.

 _What in the devil? What are you so nervous about? Nothing is going to happen._ I thought to myself.

"What are you thinking about over there?" he asked standing to my left.

"Nothing really." I lied. "Just enjoying a nice walk in the rain with an old friend." I gauged his reaction at being called a friend. He looked surprised for a moment but quickly hid it from the world. I wanted to see what he wanted from this date. Was it really just two old friends catching up? Or was it something more?

"And here we are." I said as we made it to the door. Stephen looked up at the small building squished between two others.

"Now how does a barista afford a place like this?" he asked.

"It was my grandfathers." I admitted. "After I had him checked in, he gave me the place."

"Impressive." he said as he tucked his hands into the front pocket of his jeans. He was stalling for something, or nervous. No it couldn't be nerves.

"Thanks." I said. "For everything tonight. It was a nice refreshing night out with a friend." I said again once again gauging his reaction, it was different this time. As if he was expecting the low blow of friend zone. He stepped a little closer to me, I could barely feel the heat from his breath tickle my face. He looked down to me with his typical smirk.

"You keep saying friend." he noticed it, let's be honest who wouldn't have? He glanced up at the rain, little droplets falling around his face. He looked down and made eye contact. "What if we changed that?"

I could tell he was gauging my reaction, turning the tables at it were. My heart leaped in my chest as I tried to keep a neutral face on the outside I was screaming on the inside.

"How about -" I said trying a different approach. I placed my arms around his neck as if to give him a hug but stopped a couple inches from his face. "You take me on another date and we can determine if that would be a great idea." He almost look hurt from rejection, until the rest of the sentence registered with him. His eyes reflected the little light from the outdoor light, the blue almost lit up the rest of his face when he realized I wanted to go on another date. He smirked at the comment.

"Well played." he admitted I smirked back at him as I let my arms slowly fall off his shoulders.

"What? I can't say I'm a prude but hey -" I looked back up into those blue eyes. "I've heard the stories of the great Stephen Hart. A girls gotta protect herself."

He laughed at this and nodded his head. He looked around for a moment.

"How about Thursday?" he asked. It honestly surprised me that he caved for a second date so fast.

"Thursday?" I asked acting like I had to remember if there was anything going on. "I think that works with me." I smirked up at him.

"Well, Thursday it is then." He said looking like he had won a toy bear at a carnival. I let out a chuckle as he began backing away back to the street.

"Hey Stephen!" I called out as he began walking down the sidewalk. He stopped and looked over to me. I walked over to him and peck his lips, floods of electricity flooded through me.

"See you Thursday." I muttered out as I walked back to my flat. I looked back once as I opened the door to walk in. He was still standing there with a huge grin on his face. I smiled back and walked into the house.

As I locked the door I couldn't deny the grin on my face. I leaned against the door and let out a laugh.

This would be interesting to say the least.


	4. Shooting

After 2 cancellations due to his work we were able to make it happen. Our second date was much like the first, he met me after work and we went to dinner. We talked more about evolutionary biology, which didn't surprise me. It was a big thing we had in common. I couldn't get past that he was hiding something though, something about his work. He was so vague about it.

Honestly I couldn't believe how things were going between us. He was actually courting me, not just wanting a shag. I only knew this because here we were, together, now seeing each other for a couple of weeks. We had our two dates, but then he would go out of his way to come to the tea shoppe. I knew he did it on purpose as well. Needless to say I was fancying the man much more each day. I watched him as he talked about ammonites he was so into the conversation you could see the passion in his heart for this subject.

I took a bite of pizza, thankful he had called me about 40 minutes ago asking if I was in the area and wanted to grab a late lunch. It had been a boring Saturday so far, waking up just to clean the place. When he was done talking about ammonites he stared at me as he took a bite out of his pizza.

"So what are you and Nick working on right now?" I asked him. I was trying to get more out of him about his work for curiosity's sake. His chewing slowed as he looked at me, I couldn't tell if he was thinking about the question or contemplating something else.

"Do you have any adherence towards guns?" he asked ignoring my question, throwing me through a loop.

"I uh- never really had to handle them." I said flustered at the question.

"I know what we're going to do after this." he said as he finished his slice I looked at him quizzically. This was a different side of Stephen, one I didn't really know existed. I couldn't picture him with a gun.

"So, you handle guns?" I asked taking a sip of my drink. It was rare to find anyone in London, let alone England that knew how to handle a gun or did so on a regular basis that wasn't a criminal or law enforcement.

"I do a bit. It's for my job." he looked up to me like he hadn't meant to let that last part out. I looked at him and placed my drink on the table.

"Let's do it then." I said eager to prove a gun didn't scare me. My curiosity kicked in full gear, I wanted to know what he did for work. He was a lab technician in Evolutionary Biology with Nick. What did they exactly do for work? Only time could tell. He smiled as he got up to pay the tab.

We walked out of the pizza parlor a few moments later and back to his car.

We drove up to an abandoned area. No one was around for miles. A brief thought that he was going to shoot me and leave me to die did run through my head. The only family I had was my Grandfather and it wouldn't even faze him if I was gone. I knew those thoughts were completely ridiculous but they still happened.

He was out a couple yards putting up targets for us to shoot at. I watched him as he set them up, completely baffled that I was now standing here with him in an abandoned warehouse getting ready to shoot off guns with him.

He walked past me and to his car pulling out, I presumed, his gun and handed it to me. I looked at the metal object, a little on the reluctant side, and slowly took it from him. It was the first time I had held a gun. The metal was a little on the cold side, it was heavier than I thought it would be. And rough. I didn't think it would be so rough.

"Alright so line up in position." He said as he stood next to me. I let out a shaky breath, nervous about this new power I held in my hands. Not knowing how to stand to shoot off a gun I copied what I had seen in movies. Holding the gun forward, arms locked legs slightly apart. I heard a snicker next to me. I glanced over to Stephen, he was smiling and shaking his head.

"You've seen one too many movies." He walked closer to me, his arm touching my shoulder. "Relax your elbows, don't lock them up." His left leg was suddenly pressed against mine making it move forward, my heart almost broke my ribs. I took a deep breath at the sudden closeness, now nervous about that rather than the gun in my hands.

"Even out your weight on both legs. You're right handed so cup your left hand around the right at the bottom like this." He said as his hands folded around mine, his arms on either side of me. I could feel my face flush with red. "Take aim." His head was near mine, his breath making my hair move each time he spoke. "Take a deep breath in, focus on your target. When you exhale lightly, pull the trigger."

It took a moment for me to focus on the target in front of me with the present distraction of him so close to me. I breathed in, focused my aim and pulled the trigger. The gun barely recoiled and actually felt pretty comfortable to pull this action off.

"Excellent. You actually hit the target." He said surprised. I narrowed my eyes in at my target, I had indeed actually hit the target. I let out an excited and surprised laugh. I slightly turned my head to see his reaction about it all. He was smiling into my hair. He took the gun slowly from my hands, my arms relaxed to my side as I turned around slowly to face him. He looked a little serious, a ghost of a smile still crept along his lips. He placed the gun down on the broken table next to us and faced me. He looked into my eyes, not saying a word as he moved a stand of hair in front of my face to the side. His hand rested on the side of my face, slowly making its way to behind my neck. Then to my surprise he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. His lips were as soft as they looked. It felt like little bolts of electricity were sparking between us, my stomach was fluttering with butterflies. After the initial shock of the action I realized I hadn't kissed him back. I slowly moved my lips against his, diving completely into the kiss. I didn't know how long it lasted, it felt like minutes as I opened my eyes. Our faces only parted enough to breath properly. He smiled a genuine toothy grin to me, like a kid in a candy store on Christmas. I could tell by the way my eyes crinkled, I was giving him the same smile back.

"You should show me your skills." I said, purposefully being vague. I nodded towards the gun, attempting to be flirtatious. He raised his eyebrows, obviously debating how to react to this situation. He smirked and kissed me again. Even though it had just happened seconds ago, it felt like it was brand new all over again. Our lips found a nice steady rhythm, like we had done this numerous times. His hands began to snake around my torso, leaving a warm trail of where his hands were before. My arms reached around his neck as one hand ran through his hair. As far as first kisses go with a new person, this was pretty great. The moment I felt his lips curl into a smile against mine I knew he was planning something.

In a flash of movement he had the gun in his hand with me to his side and began to shoot the targets he had laid out. The gun clicked, signaling it was out of ammo. I looked over to the targets, realizing he had hit most of them. He truly was an excellent marksman, to say the least.

"Impressive." I said still getting my breathing under control from the kiss and the sudden actions. He looked smug as he looked down to me. "A little on the cocky side though." I smirked up to him, teasing him. He let out a laugh.

"Cocky?" he acted offended, taking the arm from around my waist and holding it to his chest in mock hurt.

"Oh, Romeo you'll live." I smiled to him, this may have been a different side to Stephen that I had personally never seen. Frankly I kind of liked it.

"I sure do hope so." He closed the distance between us. "Cause I wouldn't be able to do this otherwise." He leaned down again and captured my lips in a kiss. I let out a girlish giggle, recognizing how corny his words truly were.

"Touche, good sir." I thought about my next words carefully before they escaped my lips. "How about we get out of here."

It only took three seconds for his smile to widen.

"How about that." he said, pecking my lips and began to walk towards the vehicle. He lead me over to the passenger door and opened it for me.

"Such a gentleman." I exclaimed, keeping up the playful banter. He walked around to the trunk depositing the gun before coming around to the drivers side. He sat next to me and started the ignition and began moving the car forward.

As we drove back to civilization I had noticed something had changed in the air. The light playfulness had diminished, like a rain cloud on a sunny day. Sometime in those few moments that he deposited the gun and got into his seat something about his demeanor had changed. I counted down the minutes as we drove in silence, debating on what and if I should say anything. Finally I caved in and let out a nervous breath, I didn't know I was holding.

"Stephen, whats wrong?" I asked, trying to keep my tone light. He continued to drive, not even acknowledging my question. I stared at him for a moment, he was completely focused on the road, obviously deep in thought.

"Stephen." I repeated. He glanced over only for a second before resuming his staring contest with the ever passing road.

Confused, I now stared out the window, wondering what went wrong. I ran through everything from when he called me to this moment. I honestly couldn't figure out what was wrong, or even begin to guess what was on his mind. We had spent the last couple of weeks together, nothing like this had happened. He was a spontaneous guy in the sense of a couple of our dates but nothing like today. Nothing in the terms of attitude that he was displaying now. I glanced back over to him, noting he hasn't moved a muscle.

We drove in complete silence back into the suburbs of London. Confusion growing every minute in my mind.


	5. Complex

When we pulled up to my home the sun had set. We both sat there still in silence, neither one of us moving. I only glanced over in his direction as he turned the ignition off, and promptly resumed looking at my hands.

I felt like I had done something wrong. Like when your mum drove you home early from school after talking to the principle about something you had done. The only difference, as far as I knew, I hadn't done anything wrong.

After sitting there for what felt like weeks, I glanced over to him. He remained staring at the road, like he had this whole time.

"Stephen." I said, wondering now if he would acknowledge me since the car wasn't moving. Nothing. I slowly reached down to grab my bag from the floor of the vehicle. "Ok, then." I muttered out with an exhale. I waited once more to see if he would say anything. I reached for the handle on the door when I felt his hand on my shoulder. I turned around to him, he was still staring outside.

"Skyla, I-" he choked out. I waited again, waiting for him to finish his sentence. Again, nothing.

"Ok." I repeated. My hand reached the handle and opened the door. I slid out of the vehicle and glanced back in before shutting it. "Thanks for the date today, I guess."

I shut the car door, wondering if I should stay there. I briefly thought about asking for his mobile to call Nick saying Stephen had some sort of mental break. Alas I began walking towards my home, not really knowing how to handle this situation at all. I could feel the hurt in my chest, we had a wonderful day until we got into the car. By the time I reached the door the hurt had dissipated, replaced with more confusion. I opened the door and walked in, as I closed the door I snuck a peak in his direction. He was still staring into nothing, sitting in his car. The only difference between when I was in the car and now was it looked like he was talking to himself, arguing almost. I shut the door the rest of the way locking it.

I was completely baffled on everything that happened, and honestly a little angry. Angry towards him.

 _Who does that? Takes a lady out over the course of a couple weeks, kisses them then freezes? That's completely moronic!_

I dropped my bag on the floor and walked off towards my bedroom. With millions of questions still plaguing my mind I began changing into my sleeping shorts and tank top. In a huff I walked over to the bathroom and began brushing my teeth. I stood staring at my reflection in the mirror as I brushed my teeth.

 _How did I get into this situation? What the hell happened?_

I spit the toothpaste back into the sink and splashed some water on my face. As I was drying my face someone knocked on my door.

 _Someone? Right, you know who it is._

I contemplated ignoring it and just going to bed. But he knocked once again. I walked over to the door, nothing but a piece of wood blocking us. Curiosity got the best of me as my hand reached out to the lock. I opened it a crack, just to make sure it really was him. He stood there, the blank look still on his face. I opened the door the rest of the way. The breeze from the outside hit my skin reminding me I had changed and I stood there with nothing but shorts and a tank top on.

"Yes?" I asked pointedly. I really didn't want to play games, not tonight, not this soon after the awkward drive home. He looked up to me, conflict in his eyes.

"I'm - uh - I'm sorry for that." Stephen said having a similar expression to a kicked puppy. I looked at him quizzically, debating on how I should handle this. Finally making a decision I moved to the side.

"Come in, we need to talk and I don't want either one of us to catch our death from the cold." I said inviting him in. He looked a little relieved, something I hadn't expected as he walked into my home. I lead him into the lounge and took a seat on the couch. He stood for a moment before sitting on the edge chair across from me. His hands found their way to his face as he rubbed the frustration he was feeling away. His hands lingered, covering his mouth, his arms bent. He looked over to me a serious look in his eyes.

"Skyla-" he began moving his hands away from his mouth. "I don't know how to handle this."

"What does that even mean?" I asked after waiting for a follow up from him, not receiving one. I was becoming more and more frustrated as we sat there.

"My job - " he paused for a second, thinking his words over. "It's complicated, it's dangerous and no matter how much I want to, I can't tell you about it." I thought about those words again and everything I knew about this mysterious job of his.

"Are you secret service?" I asked knowing he probably wouldn't tell me. He almost looked amused at the question before shaking his head.

"No nothing like that." he said. I contemplated what I was going to say but everything came pouring out of my mouth.

"What the hell Stephen? What the hell is this? We've been seeing each other non stop for the past couple of weeks and then you ask me to lunch and boom we have a problem after the date. What was that in the car? You know me enough to know I'm not going to be oversensitive or controlling but holy hell this is frustrating." He looked surprised at my outburst and I felt a little embarrassed over it.

"I don't want you to get hurt." he said barely above a whisper. I was taken aback from it. Here was a man who wouldn't or couldn't let me know about his job, a major part of his life, saying he didn't want me to get hurt.

"Is there a chance I could?" I asked wondering if he meant hurt from a relationship standpoint.

"No. It's nothing like that." He got up and joined me on the couch. "Skyla, I like you, I care about you."

"Then what was that? In the car?" I asked him, softer than I had since I had let him in. He looked almost reluctant to answer my question.

"The things I deal with at my job are abnormal to say the least. I don't want to start something with you and have it coming back to bite us in the ass. At any moment I could get called onto the job and I know how stressful that can be. It's already happened a couple of times. I don't want it to impact you negatively. In the car all I could think about was all the ways it could. It scared the shit out of me, Skyla." The man poured his heart out. It was so unnatural to see, let alone hear from someone like Stephen. He was a stud and he knew it. He could date around with multiple women and get away with it, never once letting them into his personal life. Thinking back to the university years, he was always a flirt but he never acted more than that. I even think he had a girlfriend once.

Yet here he was sitting in my lounge telling me he didn't want to hurt me, that he cared about me and didn't want his job to affect our relationship.

Wait. Relationship? I looked up to him, the gears turning in my head processing what he had said.

"Back up here a minute Stephen." I said as calmly as I could. "I get what your saying but what is this?" I gestured with my hand between the two of us.

"I don't know." he admitted. My heart sank and I was on the verge of just telling him to leave. "But I want to keep whatever this is going." I looked up not expecting that turn of words. "I want it to keep progressing like it has been. Like it was earlier today. I don't want to stop it because I'm worried about my job and how it effects me and possibly you."

I thought about everything he was saying. Even if he had what appeared to be a mental break in the car on the way here, he seemed to be trying to handle this the best he could.

"Could I get hurt? From your job, I mean. Like could someone come after me to get to you." I asked him.

"Not like that." he said as he reached for my hands. I took them in mine as well, letting him complete his thoughts. "But, yes, in a way you could." I let that sink in.

 _He apparently couldn't tell me what he did for a living, that's fine I guess. Apparently I could get hurt from it though, it was a little unnerving to think about. But he had told me as much as he could, letting me know before this gets more…. involved._

"Come on." I said getting up from the couch, holding my hand out to him to take.

"What?" he asked surprised.

"We're going to bed. No funny business, just sleep." I said. "You have a lot on your mind and I don't want you driving home thinking this was for naught." He grabbed my hand as I walked him towards my room, turning out the lights on the way there. Once we stood in my room I turned to him, our hands still clasped together.

"I like you too, Stephen. You're even more complicated now then you were years ago. Lets just take this one day at a time and see where it takes us." I leaned in meaning to give him a peck on the lips. He brought his free hand up to the side of my face and went into deepen the kiss. When we parted I looked up into his clear blue eyes, seeing the Stephen from earlier in the day.

"Thank you." he whispered, I gave him a small smile.

"Next time just talk to me about it rather than freaking out in silence." I said lightly trying to keep up with the current mood. "I like this Stephen a lot more."

The sun shined through the window directly into my face. I turned over trying to get away from the bright intruding light and hit something solid. My eyes shot open at the new sensation as everything from last night came flooding back to me. Stephens eyes fluttered open at the sudden contact. We laid there next to each other for a moment, just taking each other in.

Last night was different. He has shown a sensitive caring side that, for some reason, I didn't know he possessed. I mean, everyone has a sensitive side but I couldn't have imagined anything like that.

"Hi." he whispered out through a smile. One of his arms reaching towards me, touching my cheek ever so lightly. I smiled back to him.

"Good Morning." I whispered back to him smiling sleepily. He leaned over to me and pressed his lips against mine making my heart leap slightly.

"Sorry about last night." he said under his breath.

"Hush." I kissed him again as a form of silencing him, deepening the kiss from the first time. I pulled away and looked him in the eye to reassure him. "One day at a time."

The moment the words had left my mouth and sunk into the reality, what we had said last night was behind us, the kissing frenzy began.

Moans, sharp breaths and giggles filled the room. The sunlight illuminating our smiles just that much more as we began to take each others clothes off. Forgetting everything from last night, just simply picking up where we had left off before the car ride back home.


	6. First Injury

I was running late to work. After forcing myself not to take a sick day and stay in bed with Stephen I called Hannah letting her know I was running late. I could hear the amusement in her voice as she said it was fine and to hurry over. I pecked Stephen on the lips as I grabbed a jacket.

"Lock up if you leave!" I yelled out in a rush, which the whole thing must have been amusing due to the laughter heard in there. He was still lying shirtless in the bed, the covers barely covering the rest of his body.

"Skyla." He yelled out as I was almost out the door. I stopped and turned around. He was walking towards me with the sheet covering his waist. He handed me an object, my mobile. "Have a nice day at work. Late shift today right?" He kissed me one last time before I smiled to him. Really contemplating staying in for the day.

"Yup. You too. See you later?" I asked, smiling to him as I went down the steps.

"Possibly. I have a meeting with Nick. I'll let you know after that." he said. I nodded and waved as I bolted down the street towards the tea shoppe. It felt like I hadn't been here to work in ages, in reality I had been here the day before yesterday. The stupid bell dinged as I rushed into the shoppe, breathless after running the majority of the way there. I ran into the back to grab my apron and hang my bag and jacket.

"Spill." Hannah said as she crept up behind me. There had seemed to be a lull in customers at the moment, giving Hannah time to ambush me.

"About?" I acted coy.

"Come on! Details. I know you were with Stephen. Tell me." She practically begged me.

"We had a nice date that lasted a little longer than usual." I said matter-of-factly. Hannah squealed into my ear and hugged me. I brought my hand up and patted her back as she tore away.

"Was he good?" she prodded more questions. I smirked to her knowing I wouldn't be able to get out of this without indulging her curiosity just a little bit.

"Superb." I smiled to the blonde woman as she let out an excited laugh.

"So, is it just snogging or something more?" she followed me over to the counter as I prepared to make a fresh batch of coffee for the coming afternoon group of students.

"We're taking it day by day, but it looks more like something more than snogging." I admitted, she let out another squeal, now drawing the attention of the shoppes patrons. She hugged me again, I was unsure how to handle the amount of enthusiasm from the woman.

"I'm so happy for you Skyla. You've seemed to be in such a rut lately." She said. It was then when I took note that even if I had tried to keep to myself somehow, someway people could tell I was stuck. I smiled and nodded to her.

"Me too." I said as a customer came through the door. Hannah met the customer at the counter getting the order down and handing it over to me. As far as work went, Hannah and I were an unstoppable team. We worked together rather well, knowing each others strengths and weaknesses when it came to making cappuccinos.

My mind began to wonder, thinking about what Hannah had said. I was a pretty closed off person, I rarely ever talked to others about my personal life. I just kept quiet about it. I don't need friends, people pushing into places they didn't belong, or did I? Before my Grandfather got sick I wasn't a socialite but I had a few friends that I would see regularly. I glanced over at Hannah, was she a friend to me or just another coworker? When I dropped out of the university I separated myself from the world. It wasn't like I wanted to do that, it just happened, everything fell apart.

"Vanilla cappuccino." I said as I handed the drink back to Hannah.

The rest of the day continued on like this, both Hannah and I working together to give warm beverages to the shoppes patrons. After about 4 hours of non stop work I took a quick break and checked my mobile. I had a voice message from Stephen. I smiled a little to myself remembering he said he would call. I put the mobile up to my ear and listened to the message.

 _Hey Skyla. I don't know if I can make it tonight to do anything. Work called. I will make it up to you soon. Thanks for last night._

I glanced outside not even noticing the sun had already set, I checked the time stamp on his call. I had missed it by a half an hour. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bummed out. I was kind of looking forward to possibly seeing him tonight. But it was neither here nor there. Letting out a sigh I got up and began to help cleaning up for the night.

Closing was Hannah's and my favorite time of the day. Not just for the obvious reason, but for the clean up. Once the last customer left the door would be locked and we would turn the music up. Dancing, singing and cleaning the entire shop top to bottom. Cleaning the day away of all the events.

Screaming Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen at the top of our lungs, I barely missed the call I was getting on my mobile. The vibrating mobile in my pocket. I smiled at the mobile as Stephen's name popped up on the screen.

"Hello." I asked, knowing he could hear the smile in my voice. He said something but the music was too loud. "Hold on." I motined for Hannah and she turned down the music.

"Sorry. What was that?" I asked him.

"Hey, I was wondering if you could pick me up from work? I got into a little accident and can't drive tonight." he said, sounding like he was in a mixture of pain and drugged.

"Are you alright?" I asked worried now.

"Yeah. I'll text you the address." he said, I nodded forgetting he couldn't see me.

"Alright, I'll see you soon." I hung up the mobile looking at Hannah.

"What?" She asked concerned about the sudden change in my behaviour.

"I have to go pick up Stephen, he was in an accident at work." I explained. "Would it be alright if I borrowed your car?" With no questions asked or contemplation Hannah reached for her keys in her bag, handing them to me. "Thank you so much." Grabbing my bag and jacket I began walking towards the door.

"I'll take your shift next Saturday, if you'd like." I yelled back to her.

"Just have the car back here tomorrow morning and we'll be fine. I'll have Richard pick me up tonight." I glanced back as she smirked to me with a wink. "Go take care of your man." I smirked at her comment and waved to her as I unlocked the door and walked out towards her car.

I looked down at my mobile as it lit up, telling me the address where Stephen was. It was a building I had seen before but never knew what it was.

 _Cutter and I will meet you in the lot._ The latter of the text said.

 _At least I'll see Cutter again._ I thought as I started the car and drove following the directions. It only took about 10 minutes to get to the address he had given me.

The entire way there I thought to myself how it now made sense that he walked into the shoppe that day weeks ago. It was relatively close to the building with not many tea or coffee shops in between. As I pulled up to the lot, Stephen was sitting on his car with Cutter standing there talking to him. It looked almost heated but nothing to really turn heads. I parked next to them as I got out. Cutter did a double take when he saw me, leading me to believe Stephen hadn't told him I would be by.

"Skyla?" he asked confused.

"Hello Professor Cutter." I responded walking over to the two, Cutter embraced me in a light hug.

"What are you doing here?" he asked looking down at me, making me feel dwarfed by his height.

"I'm here to pick up Stephen." I said confused on why he was asking. Both of us looked over to Stephen asking him silent questions.

"uh-" Stephen started but then stopped not knowing what to say. I looked at him slightly hurt by his lack of sharing information.

"Stephen and I have been dating for the past couple weeks." I explained. Cutter looked at both of us in confusion for a moment. He looked like he would be sick. Stephen looked at me with apologetic eyes as he carefully slid off his car.

"We can talk about it later, Cutter." Stephen said patting Cutter on the shoulder and limping in my direction. Cutter turned to me still confused.

"It was nice to see you Nick." I said confused myself at this whole ordeal. Stephen limped into the car as I walked around to the drivers side and got in. Starting the car and heading to my house neither one of us said a word.

 _How could Stephen not tell Cutter that we were dating? They were always together working and he even knew me. It didn't make any sense._


	7. Nasty Scars

We drove along back to my place in relative silence. So many things were going through my mind at lightning speed I couldn't even form words. Stephen cleared his throat bouncing me from thought to reality.

"Nick- uh- is having issues remembering things." Stephen said. It took everything in me not to scoff at his words. "The accident at work, it's somewhat related to it. Everything was fine yesterday and the day before but now he thinks everything is different."

At first it sounded like he was making up excuses, but the latter made me believe he was thinking out loud. I looked at him concerned, wondering if the drugs he was on was making him more loopy than he thought.

"Stephen, that sounds just like a bad excuse." I claimed seeing if he would spill more. I pulled up to my flat and parked the car. I walked around the side to assist Stephen out of the car and into the house.

"It's not an excuse. I told him I was seeing you. Something happened, I can't explain it." he said through his gritted teeth as I led him down the hallway to my bedroom. He limped along not really using the support I was providing. As we walked into the room his leg hit the door frame. He let out a yelp in pain and launched himself to the bed.

"Are you ok?" I asked concern written all over my face. Stephen was breathing heavily to dull the pain as he nodded yes, he winced in pain as he adjusted himself on the bed undoing his pants. "Hold on cowboy, let me help you." I walked over to the dresser and pulled out some extra large sweatpants.

"You can wear these, they should fit you." I said, he eyed them quizzically. "They're mine. On the weekends I like to be comfortable."

He took his pants off the rest of the way revealing a blood soaked gauze around his leg.

"Jesus, Stephen, what the hell happened?" I closed the remaining space between us reaching out for his leg.

"It was the accident at work. I guess when I hit the wall I ripped open the stitches." he said as it was nothing.

"I think I have some bandages in the bathroom, hold on." I walked out of the room and into the bathroom.

"Skyla - wait." he said but I was already in the other room. I looked through my medicine cabinet finding the gauze I had. What could have caused an injury like that? I grabbed a couple of other products to clean the wound and walked back into the room. Stephen was in the process of unwrapping it when I walked back in.

"Look, I already know you wont tell me what happened because its job related." I began as I kneeled down on the ground to take a closer look. "But at least let me help you get this healed proper." He simply nodded to me as the last of the gauze was removed. I sucked in a breath, it looked like a bite, nothing like a crocodile, since they tend to do a death roll but it looked like something large enough to get a chunk of his leg in his mouth and tear it apart. A big cat maybe. I whistled at the sight.

"This is going to leave some pretty wicked scars." I said a I began to clean around it. They were clean tears, almost surgical. Big cat was out of the picture, their teeth were on the duller side. It looked more reptilian, or even a shark.

"More to impress the ladies." he said smirking as I looked up rolling my eyes at him. I began wrapping the fresh gauze around his leg.

"I'm sure you could tell them you were attacked at sea and fought off a vicious shark or saltwater croc." I said with a smirk. He looked panicked a moment, knowing that I could tell it was an animal bite. It only confirmed my suspicion of which.

"Or I could tell them that I had a crazy girlfriend who mistook an animal bite for a fall through a grate." he said trying to cover up on my suspicions.

"Right." I said with a smirk, noting that he had said girlfriend. After I fashioned the bandage to stay on his leg I looked up to him slinking closer.

"This girlfriend sounds like a crazy person." I said.

"Crazy doesn't even cover it." he smirked as he leaned in to kiss me. I knew what he was doing, but in that moment I didn't even care. I knew he was dodging my questions, fear of him letting something slip out.

"You know-" I said in between his kisses. "You can't just kiss me, to get past every conversation-" He shoved his tongue down my throat.

We got lost in the kisses that lead to other activities.

As I began to doze off I couldn't help but think about him. All of this, it was crazy, but I was determined to know.


	8. I Adore You

It had been roughly a week since I brought a wounded Stephen to my home. It wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought it would be to keep him here after that. I wanted to keep an eye on him and his leg. Whatever had bit him was definatly an animal, I was concerned about infection. It was nice having him around as well, I could get used to sleeping next to him in bed every night.

It was early in the morning, the sun barely beginning to rise as I watched his sleeping figure. His breathing was steady, he looked relaxed and relatively calm. I wondered what was going on in his mind. I knew he wanted to tell me more about his job, I wasn't a complete dunce. He had told me he was under contract with the Official Secrets Act. I wanted to roll my eyes when he had told me, but I was forced to believe him. Why wouldn't I?

"You know how creepy it is when you stare at me while I'm sleeping?" he muttered out. I smiled as the words left his lips.

"But you're not asleep, otherwise you wouldn't have known." I stated as he held his arm up, his silent way of asking me to come closer. I snuggled over to him breathing in his faded cologne from the day before. My head rose slightly every time he took a breath in and lowered as he took one out. His heartbeat steady as can be, he was at peace. He let out a content sigh as he held me close to him.

"I should go home today." he admitted. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disheartened but I knew he had to at some point. We weren't nearly ready for that stage yet. Day by day that's what we had discussed.

"I know." I said trying to sound nonchalant, not really knowing if he was waiting for me to answer or not.

"How about dinner tonight?" he asked throwing me off guard. I looked up to him his blue eyes meeting my hazel ones. My lips curled upwards a little.

"I mean I would have to check my schedule. I'm a very busy woman." I taunted him. His eyebrows raised in mock surprise, a smile of his own becoming more and more evident.

"I guess I'll just ask my other sweetheart to come over and keep me company then." he jested back.

I reached back throwing one of my pillows at his face laughing. His laughs were muffled through the pillow as I felt his body shift, pulling the pillow off of him and chucking it off the side of the bed. In one swift movement he pounced at me, successfully pinning me to the bed. I tried to fake fight my way out of the situation as he grabbed my hands holding them over my head, his face inches from mine. His breath was warm as it gently caressed my face. We stared at each other for felt like hours, just taking in each others facial structures. His lips crashed down to mine separating the small distance. I let out an involuntary moan as he deepened the kiss. His tongue tracing my lips asking for permission, my lips parted slightly his tongue plunging into my mouth. I moaned again as my hips bucked against his.

He pulled away from the kiss looking into my eyes. His smile making his eyes close just a little, he blinked lazily before he spoke. "Meet me at my house, lets say 4?"

"I'd like that." I said attempting to close the distance between us again. Seeming happy with my answer he let go of my arms freeing me, and swiftly stood up. He smirked to me as he found his pants, putting them on.

"Two can play at this game." he jested again, my eyebrows rose along with my smile.

"Oh really?" I asked as he began grabbing his various clothes that had found their way to the ground throughout the week. He only nodded in response, still smirking. "All right then." I said standing up, walking around the bed, I bent down in front of him grabbing one of his shirts. I threw it to him as I took off my shirt and headed to the bathroom. I could feel his eyes on me as I took off my shorts in the hallway. I jumped into the shower turning on the water, expecting him to follow. He walked into the bathroom and looked behind the curtain at me. He looked up and down at my naked body. I thought I had won this teasing game we were playing.

He leaned in enough to peck my cheek and then walked out.

"I'll see you tonight!" He yelled out in the hallway. I let out a boisterous laugh as I heard him walk around the apartment.

"Have a good day!" I yelled out before hearing the front door close. I laughed again to myself as I washed my body.

My mind began to drift back to the previous week of Stephen staying here. We ordered out mostly, the only times I left were to go to work. We mostly stayed in, watched the telly, talked about anything that popped into our minds and sex. So much sex! It was a heavenly week.

Nick had come by, after I had convinced Stephen to stay, bringing him a couple extra sets of clothes. I could tell he was still confused about the whole situation, even after we explained how we met up again. I couldn't decide if he was disappointed at this development, confused by it or pleasantly surprised. Nick had always been a hard man to read as a Professor and at times a mentor. He looked lost though. I had a feeling it wasn't just about Stephen and I, that would be ridiculous to think so. Nick was really the only person other than the delivery people that we saw at the house. Really the only time we interacted with others together the whole week.

With a sigh, longing to continue the week of nothing I turned off the water and got out of the shower. Starting the process of getting ready for work. Not really wanting to go but knowing the bills needed to get paid. Life needed to continue on.

"So he didn't tell this Nick guy that you two were dating?" Hannah asked me. I hadn't worked with her since she had lent me her car to pick Stephen up.

"That's the crazy thing, I feel like he did. Just that Nick didn't remember. I'm telling you it's weird." I explained as I made another cappuccino for a customer. I smiled as I handed it to the college aged zombie-woman. She looked utterly grateful for the warm beverage as she turned and walked out of the shoppe.

Hannah gave me a look after the woman had left, thankfully she was the last customer from a long line that had formed. Hannah's looked expressed concern about the situation but wanted to hold back.

"What?" I asked knowing it was killing her not saying what she wanted to.

"I'm not an expert in relationships." She stated as she began cleaning the front counter of the minor spills.

"But." I pressed giving her my full attention. She turned to face me.

"It all seems too weird. Like, you guys just spent a week snogging and you still don't know what he does for a living. And he didn't tell his best mate? I mean how well do you really know him?" she stated. I wasn't angry at her response, I had asked for it after all. I thought about her questions before thinking of how to answer them.

I knew Stephen to a point. He had a cousin that lived in Bristol, his mother died a couple years ago in her sleep, his father years before that. His father had taught him how to track animals when they would go hiking and exploring. He loved nature and animals, both extinct and alive. He loved Rocky Road ice cream. Carlsberg was his favorite beer that he drank on occasion. I knew a lot about him as a person, right?

"I mean I know a lot of things about him." I replied, unknowing if she would ask.

"Just be careful, I don't want him going and breaking your heart. I like you being this happy, not the aloof ice queen you were before." she said. I laughed at her description of me and threw my damp rag at her side.

"I wasn't that bad!" I shouted to her, she laughed at my playfulness. Looking to me as if she had made her point perfectly clear.

The clocked turned four as I showed up at Stephen's flat. I had only been inside once and it was many years ago. My car at the time had died after class had gotten out, he saw me in the parking lot and offered me a lift. After talking about the subject of the day, Lucy or the fossil specimen L 288-1, he decided to stop by his place to grab a book for me to read in my down time. If I remembered right it was the book Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind by Donald Johanson. I smiled at the memory, his place had been surprisingly clean and neat, not something I expected from a bachelor.

I knocked on the door waiting for an answer. I check my watch again making sure it said four when there was no answer. I knocked again, louder this time in case he didnt hear it, still nothing. I looked around to make sure I got the right place, I was certain it was the right door. As I pulled out my mobile to call him a car pulled up behind me, Stephen's car. As he walked up to the steps, he stopped when he noticed me. Confusion then worry crossed his face before he gave me a soft smile.

"Hey beautiful." he said as he walked up and kissed my lips and walked up to the door.

"What's wrong?" I asked noticing his apprehension.

"Nothing." he said as the door opened, he walked in first before inviting me in. It seemed odd, almost as if he was hiding something.

"Are you sure?" I asked as I closed the door behind me. He looked around his apartment one more time before settling on my face.

"Of course, just weird to be back here is all." he said. I nodded in understanding as I walked over to him to give him a hug. I stepped back as I walked closer to him, he smelled horrible. He looked at me with confusion again, this time sending me into a fit of giggles.

"You sir, smell horrible." I said between giggles noticing the darker patches of fabric on his shirt. "What do you have on you anyway?"

He looked down at his clothes then back to me and smiled.

"Part of the job today." he admitted letting out a forced laugh. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll go take a shower."

He walked off into the apartment, I assumed to where his bathroom was. I followed shortly after looking around at his small but sincere apartment. I sat on the corner of his bed, hearing the shower turn on to the right of me. I could tell something had changed since this morning, something was gnawing on his brain. He could have just had a hard day at work, he certainly smelled like it.

After a couple of minutes of sitting I stood up and began to undress walking into the bathroom. I cautiously approached the shower curtain, now debating my idea. With the last bit of courage I had I stepped into the shower behind Stephen. His shoulders were tense for a moment as I placed my hand on his back then relaxed considerably.

"You looked like you could use the company." I said as I grabbed his bottle of body wash, squirting some of the green liquid into my hand before lathering it up on his back. The tension in not only his shoulders but his body seemed to wind down each time my arm circled creating a lather of soap. Whatever was on his mind wasn't easy for him.

Slowly he turned to face me, the confusion in his eyes from before was replaced by something akin to a kicked puppy. Our eyes locked as I asked him the silent question if he was alright again. He slowly brought his face to mine and tenderly kissed my lips. It was the softest most gentle time I had ever kissed him. It was as if I was a piece of paper and if he kissed to hard I would rip into pieces being lost forever. He pulled from the kiss and looked to me.

"I adore you Skyla Lock." He whispered. My heart was pounding in my ears, it certainly wasn't the infamous L word, nor should it be. It showed me he cared, that I wasn't just a nice snog at night. I didn't need to hear it but it was nice to hear it from him. Nice to know how he thought. Droplets of water hitting my face as I closed the gap between us once more.


	9. The L Word

I groaned as I woke up, it was way too early to be away on my day off. My bed, my lovely beautiful bed was so comfortable. Why was I awake? I turned over in my bed trying to find the right position to get back to sleep. I reached out to the side of the bed that Stephen usually slept on. Instead of a shirtless warm body I heard a crunch of paper. Confused I grasped the paper in my hand to look at it.

Work called.

Be back later.

He must have left a while ago, the residual warmth from his body was gone from the sheets. I dropped the note and turned over back to my spot. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but my mind wouldn't shut off.

What were you even doing Skyla? You spent almost all of your free time together, mostly eating and sleeping. You slept with him too soon and now you were in a rut. He couldn't and wouldn't tell you about his work and-

For the love of god Skyla, just go back to sleep.

I opened my eyes wanting to hiss at the bright sun shining in my eyes.

One month, that's how long it's been. You guys said take it day by day and that's exactly what we were doing. Nothing had progressed though, not really. We were not in that typical relationship lull where you have nothing to say or talk about no, we always had things to talk about. We had the same likes and interests, that's what started this in the first place. But something was missing.

With another groan I got out of bed, my warm feet hitting the cold floor. I shuffled my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth, continuing my thoughts.

We cared for each other, yes. We were fond of each other, yes. God the man was gorgeous. The way his eyes sparkled when he talked about prehistoric creatures, the smile he would get when I understood what he was saying. The way my heart fluttered when our skin touched, especially when it was on accident. The way my stomach tied in knots of anticipation for our dates, or to come home seeing him on the sofa reading a book.

I smiled into the mirror the toothbrush still in my mouth. I had an epiphany as I stared at my reflection, the toothbrush falling out.

"No." I said to myself my eyes widened with shock. "No you bloody don't!"

I spit the toothpaste into the sink and rinsed my mouth out. I avoided my thoughts and stomped into my room and got dressed. I had errands to run I needed to focus on that, not the fact that I loved Stephen freaking Hart.

It had taken me all day hailing cabs, grocery shopping, and getting a couple new shirts for work. Finally I was home and I was exhausted, how could something so menial take so much out of you. Stephen's car wasn't out front, he must have been still at work, or went to his house. Fine with me.

How could I face someone after realizing I loved them? How? I felt embarrassed, vulnerable and confused. It was inevitable right? Falling for him?

I opened the fridge to put the perishable items away noticing the magnet on the fridge. It was a fossil of a creature from the Permian era. I smiled at the memory of getting the magnet.

It was eleven at night as I scoured the book in front of me. Taking in all the knowledge I could, I took a sip of my coffee. I was alone in the library, with the exception of the librarian currently snoring at her desk. Thankfully around this time of year, finals, they kept the library open at all hours. I turned the page the subject not really changing just going into depth, my eyes began to flutter closed. I heard the door close snapping the librarian to a sitting position as she wiped the saliva that had escaped her mouth away. It was nice to know that someone else wanted to be here.

I looked back to the book. It wasn't that the Permian era was boring, I just haven't slept in what seemed like days.

"Skyla?" a voiced asked.

I looked up to see Stephen standing before me, a book of his own in his hand. "Oh, hey Stephen." I said with a lazy smile. He looked down to my open book.

"Permian? Studying for Cutter's test?" he asked.

"Sure am." I said as I took another sip of my coffee, hoping the warm caffeine would keep me awake.

"I wouldn't worry too hard about it. You're the brightest in the class." He claimed.

I looked up to him with a smirk, it could have been from the lack of sleep but god was he gorgeous. "Yeah, but I'm having issues remembering what Arthropods lived in that specific era."

He motioned for permission to sit next to me. I nodded knowing that no one would ever sit there. "How so?"

I shrugged my shoulders sitting back to rub my eyes. "I get them confused with the Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous period. I'm just not that interested in bugs."

He let out a low chuckle, taking by book from in front of me.

"Think of it this way, Arthropleura is from Pennsylvanian, and Pulmonoscorpius is from the Carboniferous. So 'P' for Pennsylvanian and Pulmonoscorpius, which didn't happen together." He explained. It made some sense, I was surprised that he was trying to help my confusion.

I nodded in response to what he was saying, as a way to let him know I understood. "That makes sense." I looked at the open pages now next to him glancing through the text.

I continued asking questions about Arthropods and invertebrates, he answered the best he could. Sometimes hinting at what would be on the test and what wouldn't. Sometime in the night we had fallen asleep, only to wake up with my head resting on his shoulder, himself asleep as well.

When I received the exam back a week later it came with a permian era scorpion fossil magnet. I looked up to Stephen knowing it had to have been him who gave it to me. He smirked back to me before he helped one of the students that was complaining about her low grade.

It seemed like a lifetime ago but we had so many moments like that. It was like this relationship was bound to happen. I glanced at the clock as I mindlessly put groceries away. The glowing red lights showing me it was just past 9 at night.

Where was he? Usually he would have let me know where he was by now, funny I was so consumed with my thoughts throughout the day I hadn't realized I hadn't heard from him. It was odd. Just as I put that thought in the universe my mobile began to vibrate in my pocket. I glanced down the ID saying it was Stephen, the man of the hour. I let out a deep breath before answering, hoping to calm my nerves.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hey beautiful. It's running late, I have to stay." he explained.

"Not a problem. Just let me know when you get off so I know you get home alright. I love you." the words slipped out casually, like I was talking to a family member or long time friend. My face went red in embarrassment unable to believe at what I had just done.

The line was silent for a long moment, I could feel the tension at what I said linger. "No problem. Have a good night."

"You too." I said as the line went dead. It was so awkward. I knew that this would happen…. Always things like this happened.


	10. Something In The Water

That was the end of it, I was sure.

Stephen and I hadn't talked, let alone seen each other in days now. My realization just cementing more so in my mind. The next day I had called asking him if we could talk, he said that he was busy with work and would catch up with me later. Personally, I thought it was a cop out. I knew he was avoiding me and whatever we had was probably over. I had overstepped and he probably got scared at the amount of time we had been spending and decided to opt out. I couldn't shake the feeling though that something else was wrong. If he was spending this much time at work, it couldn't be good.

I had the entire day to myself to do whatever I wanted to. I was closing shift tonight so I didn't need to be anywhere until half past six. I needed to think, I needed to mull over everything that had happened in the recent months of my life. I should visit my grandfather, but honestly I couldn't handle it right now. I felt bad about not seeing my grandfather. I tried to make it a habit to at least stop by once a week.

But the emotional rollercoaster that was Stephen Hart was wearing me down in my own doubt.

Early in the morning I decided to head over to Millwall. Just to walk around the river Thames and maybe have lunch on the Millwall inner dock. It was something my grandfather and I often did on the weekends when I was a child. It was always so comforting to me having him there by my side as we ate ice cream. There were a few little restaurants in the area that were pretty decent. I still loved going there to clear my mind it was my secret home away from home.

The cabby dropped me off near the docks, I tipped him well as I got out. I could faintly smell the familiarity of the muddied water in the air as I walked over to a newer sandwich place. The smell of fresh bread hit my nose as I walked into the restaurant. I looked over the menu and ordered a turkey club. I walked out of the place and began eating my sandwich along the docks.

I was content being by myself, that's why I hadn't dated in over a year. I could easily go back to that way of living. Flirting with the occasional nice looking man but never committing to a date. But were Stephen and I really over? I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that he truly was stuck at work. But not knowing what he did was part of the problem too. I couldn't visit him for lunch or bringing him a sandwich, because I didn't even know if the place I picked him up weeks ago was his actual place of business. I let out a long frustrated sigh.

How would I make this work? How would anyone? Why was I even fretting so much about this? Because you said you loved him after you realized it yourself.

I continued to argue with myself in my head enjoying the empty docks. I bit into my sandwich again gazing around noticing there was really no other people around, at least on land. In the water below the docks there were three boats with people looking for something in the water.

Probably another soul fell in and drowned. I thought taking another bite. I watched the search team converse from afar, one of the men catching my eye. He looked just like Stephen. I stepped closer to the edge of the dock, trying to see if it would give me a better view.

You've really gone off the deep end now. Thinking that a total stranger looked like Stephen. Especially from this distance, you could barely make out their faces anyway.

Nevertheless I stared at the man in the middle of the water, trying to see if I had gone completely insane or not. The boat that Stephen's doppelganger was on rode up close to another boat, one with a noticeably blonde man. I could faintly hear the blonde man yell in a Scottish accent, I did a double take as I realized it was Nick Cutter.

What in the bloody hell was Stephen and Cutter doing in the middle of the water in the inner docks of Millwall? Should I shout to them? No. Stay quiet, this would make it look like you're stalking him.

I went to turn around, my curiosity peaked, when my foot slipped on the edge of the dock. I dropped my sandwich as an attempt to catch myself on the edge of the dock but missed. I fell for only seconds before cold water enveloped me. I kicked up gasping for air, I turned around to see if the people in the boats about 12 meters away had noticed me. Everyone on the boats were staring in my direction.

"Way to go Skyla, you clumsy idiot." I muttered to myself. One of the boats began coming towards me, the one with Cutter on it.

This was not going to be a fun conversation to have with either of the two men. Cutter's face was becoming more clear to me as he neared where I was. Both of us able to to clearly tell who the other was. I felt like I was being scorned by an angry parent as he neared. I was suddenly thankful to be in the water so I couldn't look like a kicked puppy. I continued to kick my legs keeping me afloat and in place. When I kicked my leg forward, nothing happened, there seemed to have a resistance. I felt a slight tug on my pant leg, making my head dip a little into the water. Fear and adrenaline began to coarse through my veins. I looked down uselessly in the muddied waters. I felt it again, harder this time pulling my head under the water for a split second. I looked up at the boat, still too far away. I opened my mouth to call out to Cutter when I was tugged again pulling me completely under the water. I struggled under the muddied depths trying to get free from whatever had me. It let go as I raced towards the surface for air. When I took a deep breath as I exhaled I took in another inhale ready to shout.

"Cutter! Stephen!" I screamed before I was dragged under again. I struggled trying to get out of the grasp of whatever had me, but no avail. It pulled me further and further into the water at a decently fast speed. My lungs began to burn yearning for oxygen as the last of the air I had run out sending bubbles to the surface. I stared at the wavy muddled sun above me before I lost consciousness.


	11. Glowing Orb

I felt like I was floating on a cloud, a cold damp cloud. It was peaceful and quiet but something was off, I could faintly hear people screaming.

Should I be screaming too? What were they screaming about?

I opened my mouth to say something only for no oxygen to reach my lungs. I tried again, I felt bubbles slip between my lips. With a jerk my eyes opened I was underwater, everything rushed back. I kicked my legs in hope to take me to the surface. I felt the sweet release of oxygen as the water flowed off of my face. I breathed in the oxygen and let out a scream.

What the hell was going on? Where was I?

There was a storm grate above me, rusted over and it looked like I was in a tank of some sorts. I screamed Stephen's name out of instinct.

"Hello?!" someone shouted, it wasn't near me, but it wasn't far either.

Startled at the sudden new voice I answered back. "Where the hell am I?!"

"We don't know. Are you alright?" The feminine voice said.

I did a mental check to see if anything hurt or if I felt warm anywhere from blood. "I think so, relatively speaking." I looked around at my now rusted watery tomb.

How the hell did this happen? One minute I was eating a sandwich the next I fell into the water. What had grabbed me?

"What's your name?" a male voice asked.

I reached out to the storm grate above to see if it would move if I pushed it, no such luck. "Um, Skyla. How many people are down here?" I held onto the grate my legs beginning to tire out keeping me afloat.

"Just Abby and I. Name's Lucian." the man said.

"Any ideas on how to get out of here?" I asked hitting the grate one more time for good measure.

"Not yet, but I know my friends are looking for us." The woman, Abby, said.

"How did I even get here? What's happening?" I asked suddenly letting the fear in my voice be known.

"There's these creatures." Lucian explained. "They grabbed us and brought us here." I floated in the water confused, what the hell kind of creatures?

"Creatures?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain." Abby answered, I could tell in her voice she was going to say something else. "You said Stephen."

"What?" I said under my breath but loud enough to be heard by the other two, wherever they were at.

After a brief silence, just the sound of moving water hitting the stagnant water below. Abby answered. "You said Stephen after you screamed. One of my friends name is Stephen."

"Stephen Hart?" I asked her with a new found curiosity mixed with excitement.

"Yes!" She yelled out.

"Yeah, I'm - I'm his girlfriend- I think." I yelled out not really knowing what else to say. So we both knew Stephen, was this a coworker of his? Or just a friend?

"Oh." I barely heard from wherever they were.

There was a very pregnant pause making me wonder how this woman knew Stephen. It wasn't necessarily jealousy that riddled through my mind but more of curiosity. Other than Cutter I hadn't met any of Stephen's friends. Ever.

I felt like I was getting closer to the storm grate, it was odd the space between the water and the storm grate was shrinking. The water was getting deeper! My heart began to speed up in fear. I didn't want to die, especially drown in a metal tube with a rusted grate locking me in.

"Is- uh- Is the water getting deeper where you guys are?" I sputtered out.

"Help!" they began shouting again. I assumed that the water was rising as well. I grasped the storm grate harder than I had before, trying to make it move. All the while screaming along with them. Hoping that Abby's friends, Stephen, were searching for us they could hear the noises and come running. I could faintly hear Abby saying something to Lucian before a yelp.

"Abby!" Lucian screamed breaking my concentration of trying to get out.

"What happened?!" I shouted.

"The creature took her! Abby!" Lucian said the fear completely evident in his voice.

"Help!" I screamed louder hoping someone could hear us.

"Help! Hello! In here. Quickly the water's rising! Help!" Lucian screamed louder than before.

"Lucian. Lucian, hang on. We are going to get you out of here." a new familiar Scottish voice appeared.

"Cutter?!" I screamed hoping it really was him. I stared out of the storm grate hoping to see his blonde hair and kind blue eyes appear. After a couple of moments his face appeared on the other side of the grate.

"Skyla! Were going to get you out of here hand on." He fiddled with the storm grate and something metal, a crowbar maybe, until it came loose. He held out a hand to me pulling me out of the water. I collapsed on the side of the grated grave and breathed in. Relieved to be out of the water finally. Cutter sat next to me a bit breathless too.

"You've got to help Abby." Lucian said. I turned seeing him sitting on another grate with another man.

"What?" the man I didn't know said.

Lucian was as breathless as all of us trying to catch it. "Abby." He said breathlessly.

The man I didn't know looked at him in shock as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Abby's still alive?" he asked, excited at the news.

"It took her." Lucian said.

"Where?" Cutter asked.

"Down the pipes." Lucian pointed back down where he just was.

"Down the pipes down here?" the other man asked pointing to the water, Lucian nodded. "Abby!" The man stood up and took off.

"Connor!" Cutter yelled after the man unsure of what to do.

"Come on." He muttered to me grabbing the fabric of my jacket to tug. We jumped off the storm grate and walked over to Lucian who was settling himself away from the grates. None of this made any sense to me. What had grabbed us? Where did it come from? Why was Cutter and Stephen involved? Was this really their job?

"What the hell is going on?" I asked unable to contain it any longer. Cutter gave me a look before deciding to ignore me, turning to Lucian.

"Lucian, what did it look like?" Cutter asked. A loud noise came from the hole I had just come out of.

We all turned to see it as a creature with what appeared to have the head of a hairless bear or a large cat and the body of a seal popped out.

"That!" Lucian screamed as we instinctively backed up away from the creature. It slowly came closer to us.

"What the hell is that thing!" I screamed pointing at it. In all of my studies about all creatures current and past I had never seen anything or heard of anything like it.

"I ain't going back in those tanks again." Lucian stood backing away further behind us. The creature roared bearing its teeth.

"What the hell is that?" Cutter repeated my question. Appearing to be in as much shock and confusion as I was. "Stay where you are." He warned us, taking the lead of the situation. I noticed out of the corner of my eye Lucian bent down picking up a rock. He lifted it in his hands and threw it at the creature, hitting the pipe above it before it hit the creature knocking it out.

"Nice shot!" Both Cutter and I said in shock, not only had he thrown the rock but actually hit the object in mind.

"Yes. Two points. Who says I cant play?" Lucian spouted.

Another creature flew out of a pipe that Lucian had just hit with the rock. My eyes had a hard time keeping up with the creatures body as it slammed into Cutter, knocking him into the open tank next to us.

"Cutter!" I yelled out as he stood in the waste deep water.

It took a moment for him to gain his bearings, realizing that something had indeed hit him into the water. "What was that?" he asked as the creature emerged from behind him.

Lucian and I were too scared to say anything as Cutter turned around following our eyes to the snarling creature. Bubbles began to form in the pool between where Cutter and the creature stood. A craft of some sorts emerged distracting the creature as it began to attack it. I dove forward to help Cutter get out of the pool, Lucian right behind me. We stood there watching the creature attack the object, happy that all of us were now out of the water. It was only a momentary moment of victory on our part. All around us snarling from the creatures began. We looked around as they began to emerge from the pools. Cutter grabbed the crow bar he had used before, coaxing us into a tight group.

"Stay together." He said. Watching all of the creatures slowly surround us. Each time one of them attempted to charge at us we retaliate trying to scare it. These creatures seemed smart, we wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. They would realize we were helpless, this is how we died.

I heard a someone take in a deep breath, I turned to the noise as Stephen came out of the water with a gun. "Get down. Get down." Cutter's voice echoed as we dropped down to the ground. Bullets flew at the creatures, scaring off most of them, killing one.

After the gun had stopped it was eerily silent. "Where's Abby?" I asked. The creatures seemed to be gone and not coming back but there was no way to know for sure. Where they had gone was beyond me. They could have gone back to where ever they came from, the river or just traveled through the pipes. Cutter looked over to me then behind me to Stephen.

I turned around to see where Stephen was, noticing he was now behind me. "Connor ran off to find her." Cutter explained.

"Which way?" Stephen asked. I looked to him, trying to get a hint of what he was thinking. If he thought any of this was weird, the only thing I could see was relief. Cutter pointed as we all headed in that direction. We walked in fevered silence into a similar room from before. A glowing orb was in the corner, I stopped in my tracks staring at the orb.

"There's the anomaly" Cutter stated at the orb. Anomaly? Well of course that's not normal but you just pointed it out like you would a cow driving past a farm.

"They must have gone through it." Stephen thought aloud.

"Gone through it! Are you daft? You don't even know if you can go through it!" I shouted, there was something so familiar about that orb. Stephen grabbed my shoulders forcing me to look up to him.

"Stay here." Stephen stated firmly. Without so much of a peck on the cheek or another word, he ignored my previous spout and followed Cutter through the orb.

"What the bloody hell?" Lucian muttered under his breath staring after the two who had disappeared in the ball of light.

I walked closer to the orb, not too close mind you I was still meters away. Something was itching in the back of my mind, like I had seen these before. I heard a snarl come from behind Lucian and I, I turned to see one of the creatures coming right at us. Both Lucian and I dove away from the oncoming creature watching it disappear into the orb. That's when it all hit me. The blood ran from my face and it took every ounce of strength not to curl in a ball and cry.

My grandfather. My geriatric, dementia ridden grandfather had spout off about these types of instances the last couple years.

My epiphany was interrupted as a couple of men and women dressed in tactical gear came into the spacious room guns ready.

"You both need to leave." One of the men said to Lucian and I as we stood up.

"I'm not going anywhere." I confronted the man.

"This is not a place for civilians." He started again, "You need to leave now!"

Lucian began walking in the direction of where they came from but I stood my ground. "I'm sorry but two of my friends are in there. I'm not leaving until they come back."

We stood there staring each other down, I barely noticed that Lucian was gone, off to where we were demanded to go. I refused to leave without knowing that the two people I knew and the two I didn't were ok. We heard people taking deep breaths and new foot falls grabbed our attention. The four people who had gone through had come back. I let out a sigh of relief seeing them all relatively alright.

Cutter aided Connor and Abby with this hand, towards my direction.

"Get them out of here." Cutter sounded exhausted from this adventure.

I locked eyes with Stephen as I was ushered away with Abby and Connor, towards the direction I was commanded to go earlier. We reached the outer part of the building, the sun was shining and it was slightly warmer out here. Connor, Abby and I were greeted by paramedics handing us blankets and towels. All of us graciously took them, hugging them to our soaked bodies. Abby looked up to me as if noticing I was there for the first time and gave me a hug. I was shocked at the sudden contact of the stranger but gladly hugged her back.

"It's nice to see you and not just hear you." I stated to the woman. She let out a breathy laugh at the whole ordeal.

"Likewise." She said with a smile when she noticed Lucian near the ambulance. Her and Connor ran over to see how the young male was doing. I looked back anxious to see when Cutter and Stephen were coming over here.

I stood there awkwardly as paramedics crowded me asking me questions and taking my vitals. I explained I was fine just tired from trying to stay afloat. Eventually they left me alone and went to verbally attack Abby and Connor. Finally I noticed the familiar blonde and brunette duo walk out of the building and towards our direction.

I don't know what I was expecting from either one of them as they approached me. Part of me wanted to yell for explanations, part wanted to slap them both silly, the other just wanted to hug them out of happiness that we were all alive. As soon as Stephen was in arms reach he crashed into me with a surprising hug. His warmer body pressed against mine, I sighed in content. The first real contact in days with the man. He pulled away placing his hands on my face as he looked me over.

"You alright?" he asked gazing into my eyes, relief from before still shown.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." I started wanting to smile but couldn't. There was something so off about this situation.

"I know, come on." Stephen said as he led me over to his car. "Stay here for just a moment, I'll be right back."

He left me sitting in his car, not explaining anything.

How was my crazy old grandfather right? That there were gateways to other time periods where creatures came through, or he could go through? How was any of this possible?


	12. Truths

We walked into Stephen's apartment in silence. The entire car ride here was just that, silence. I didn't want to sit on his white duvet, so I stood there awkwardly waiting for one of us to talk or acknowledge anything at all. I watched Stephen as he walked over to his closet and pulled out some clothes.

"These should fit you alright. Take a shower, I'll have tea for you when you get out." he said. It wasn't necessarily a command or a suggestion, but he put it out in the world for me to know.

I stood looking at the clothes he laid out on the bed for me, just simple sweats and a shirt. "When I get out we'll talk." I stated.

He just nodded to me as I grabbed the clothes and walking into his bathroom to the shower. I looked at the tub longing to be in it rather than the shower, but there was no time. I turned the water on so it could warm up as I got undressed. I stood staring at the door waiting to see Stephen come into vision. He never did, I shook my head and walked under the water. It was so warm and cozy I never wanted to leave. I used his shampoo and soap, washing all the muck and dirty water from the day away. I could barely collect my thoughts, so many of them zipping around in my mind. I turned the water off and dried, getting dressed in Stephen's clothes and walked out of the shower. I bundled my dirty clothes in the corner of the bathroom not knowing what else to do with them at the moment. I walked out into the main room and into the kitchen off to the side. As promised a cup of tea awaited me as Stephen made one for himself. I took the warm cup in my hands breathing in the warm steam.

"Take a shower first." I said to him as he took a sip of the hot liquid. He nodded putting the tea down and walked off, giving me time to think.

We needed to talk about the orbs, or anomalies as they called them. We needed to talk about the creatures, I mean the cat was out of the bag right? He had to talk to me about his job and what exactly happened today. Most importantly we needed to talk about us. Even through the chaos of the day, I still didn't know where we stood. I took a sip of the warm tea, warming my insides as it settled in my stomach.

I heard the water shut off and footsteps walking out of the bathroom. I peaked around the corner seeing him looking in a drawer only wearing a towel. I bit my lip not to say anything as I watched him get dressed. I straightened up when he turned, he walked into the kitchen still putting on his shirt.

We stood there awkwardly again in silence not knowing what to say to each other or where to begin. We simultaneously took sips of our beverages to distract us. I was psyching myself up to say something, anything to begin this complex conversation.

"I'm sorry." I muttered out grabbing his attention. He looked up above the rim of the tea sipping it. He pulled it away from his face and sucked in his breath.

"For what?" he asked placing the cup on the counter.

I looked up to him in a 'really' expression. I sighed, "For saying it a couple days ago. It slipped out like it would with family or friends." He leaned his hands on the counter to get a little closer to me. "Earlier today I was out at Millwall because that's where I go to clear my head. I needed to think about how to have this conversation with you. I glanced over to the boats and thought I saw you and Cutter before I fell into the water below. The rest you know."

His face had the expression when he was in deep thought. One lip slightly turned up in a quizzical stance, making his cheek raise slightly causing his eye to be lidded. I had seen that look so many times. It was probably the most adorable look he had to be honest. I remembered I would get lost in that look when someone tried to explain something to him in the class that was wrong. He would try to rack his brain for what they meant.

His face relaxed a bit but he didn't say anything as he picked up his tea taking another drink from it. I was getting impatient with the long silences. "What was that today? That creature? The orb?" I pressed unable to keep silent anymore. He opened his mouth wondering what he could say, like he was weighing his options. "I know you signed a contract but Jesus, Stephen, I saw it. I saw these things. Is this really your job?"

It took him a moment to say anything, the time ticking by wondering if this was going to continue to be a one side conversation. His mouth opened again. "It is my job. Dealing with the anomalies and what comes out of them. I don't know what that creature was today." It was simple and to the point, telling the truth without actually saying anything.

I wanted to be angry about it. I wanted to throw a fit but I noticed he hadn't talked about the beginning of the conversation. I stayed quiet letting him collect his thoughts hoping he was willing to share more. This conversation reminded me of the time when we went shooting the first time and the aftermath of coming home. He didn't know how to talk about any of this, relationship or his work.

"I didn't think that something like what happened today could happen. We almost lost a member of the team. I almost lost you." he admitted not making eye contact with me. I stared at his blank face as he stared at the wall behind me. "I told you at the beginning I didn't want you getting hurt. I didn't want my job to affect you."

"Stephen. I'm fine. Yes, your job is a pain in the ass but its fine." I explained to him he shook his head.

"My leg, hell a year or so ago I almost died due to the job. And you got kidnapped by a creature. I can't let you be effected like this." he said.

"Is this your way of breaking things off with me?" I asked, he looked at me with shock in his eyes. My nonchalant voice was not what he was expecting.

"I don't know Skyla." He said.

"Look, we agreed we would take this day by day. Today was a bad day. No one died, no one really got hurt. Everyone is fine. Nothing has changed with the exception that I know a little more about your job as well as the whole I love you thing a couple days ago." I explained to him everything, trying to make him see my side.

"So do you?" he asked with a smirk.

"What?"

"Love me?"

I stood there for a moment staring at him. "I mean I care for you, I care about your well being so yes I do." He nodded his smirk got a little bigger.

"I do too." He didn't say it per se. I knew if I pressed I still wouldn't get him to say it. But the 'I do too' it meant something, it was as close as I could get to it and it was fine, for now. "You scared the shit out of me today. When I heard you call my name it sent chills down my spine. When I looked over and you were gone, I dove into the water to try and find you but you were gone."

I looked up to him with soft eyes. He didn't know that the creature was, he had dove into the water to save me. "When you said your leg, what did you mean?" I asked deciding to press more into the job.

He laughed. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." I challenged.

He raised his eyebrows, coupled with the smile I couldn't help but bite my lip. His tanned face bringing out his blue eyes more. "It was a raptor."

I gave him a double take when the words left his mouth. No longer biting my lip. "As in dinosaur raptor?!" I screeched out. I don't know if it was out of surprise, excitement or shock. He let out a chuckle and walked over to my side of the counter nodding his head along the way.

I looked up to him in shock, not believing anything he was saying. He pressed his forehead down to mine, I breathed in his clean scent. "It's a lot to take in." I nodded against his head causing a small amount of uncomfortable friction.

All the information that had happened in the last day swirling around in my mind. I felt nauseous."I'm going to go lay down before I pass out." I said, he nodded slowly as he walked me to his bed. I laid down and almost instantly closed my eyes at the comfort, wanting nothing more then to coast into sleep. I felt Stephen's arm curl around my midsection pulling me closer to him. Soft lips pressed into my temple was the last feeling I had before my eyes shut and I drifted into my much needed sleep.


	13. Grandfather

I woke up in a start. Seeing the creature in my dreams that had grabbed me haunting me slowly. A hand touched my back making me jump again at the sudden contact. I turned to the hands owner, seeing Stephen.

"You alright?" He said sleepily. It couldn't have been any later than six in the morning. I nodded as I let out a long exhale.

"I think I need to go home." I said scared of the creatures in my head. I looked over to Stephen's face, barely seeing him in the darkness.

"You sure? I'd feel better having you here." he said. I nodded my head.

"One of us should get some sleep." I substituted the truth. I wanted to be near him but I needed to be alone. I needed to process all of this, alone.

"Let me get my coat." He said as he wrestled out of the sheets. A small part of me felt bad, like I was an inconvenience. I reluctantly got up and got a sack grabbing my clothes from the day before. Putting on my still wet shoes, cringing as I put my weight on them, the water coming up in between my toes.

Stephen and I walked out to the car and he drove me home. Too tired to talk or really say anything we sat in the car driving back to my place. With a sweet kiss goodbye he left, heading down the street to get something to eat before he went back home.

It felt like it had been months since I was in my own home, not just the 24 hours it was. I took off the dreaded shoes, dropping the bag of clothes next to them. I walked over to the lounge sitting on the sofa. Really letting my mind think about all of it.

The orb was exactly how my grandfather described. A whitish yellow floating circle, with clear crystals roaming, circling the orb in the middle. It was a beautiful sight. My grandfather described the creatures that came through. Monsters that weren't really monsters but past creatures. Raptors, Dodo's, giant bugs, flying Pterosaurs just remembering his descriptions. He told me he went through one once. The other side he had problems comprehending in words. The air fresher, the mountains more evident, the trees so much taller than the ones on our side.

I thought he was crazy, especially when he started talking about it in his older age. Guilt began covering my body and my soul. He wasn't crazy. He really did have dementia but instead of making things up he was remembering his past. I small tear fell down my face. I was so ashamed at how I had handled my grandfather. I needed to see him, tell him that I believed him. Even if he wouldn't remember it, it would settle my consciousness a little. I check the time, the home he was in would be ready for visitors in a couple hours.

I got up walking over to the water drenched clothes. Deciding I would need to wash them a couple times, hopefully to get the stench out. I went through my pockets before putting them in the washer, glad to see that my mobile and wallet had stayed on my person through the whole ordeal. I checked my mobile, it was waterlogged like I had expected. I set the washer to wash pouring in the liquid soap and walked away, wallet and mobile in hand. I took out all the contents of the wallet trying to dry the money as well as I could. I would need to go and get a new mobile, probably could get it done before I headed out to my grandfather. I sighed and began getting ready for the day.

The mobile store took longer than I had thought it would, but having the familiar weight back into my hand made me let out a small sigh of relief. It wasn't that I was attached to my mobile, it was a safety net. If something like yesterday was to happen again, but on land, I might have a shot at calling someone to get me. I turned on the mobile waiting for it to load all the way, knowing I had missed something, right? I walked down the street towards the home where my grandfather resides in.

 _Ding, Ding._

The unmistakable chime of my mobile grasped my attention. I looked down.

"Shit!" I said noting the 12 missed calls and 15 new texts. All most all of them belonging to Hannah. I clicked the buttons wanting to listen to the messages.

" _Hey, Sky where the hell are you? Your shift started 30 minutes ago. Call me."_ Hannah's voice said full of concern. A small moment of silence came before the next message.

" _Sky, I'm getting worried what the hell?"_ Her voice was more concerned in that one.

" _Sky? Are you even alive? Janet, is pissed that you no called no showed."_ My heart sank into my stomach as I remembered I had work yesterday.

" _Skyla you need to get here, like now. Janet is threatening to fire you."_ I shut my eyes knowing what was going to happen.

" _Hello Skyla, this is Janet. I hope you are having a fun day, taking the day off. Have fun with the rest of the week too. You're fired."_ Janet's voice filled my ears.

"FUCK!" I yelled out loud. A few passersby watching me with cautious eyes at my outburst. I didn't even bother listening to the other messages. I looked up and saw the door to the nursing home. With a long sigh I walked up the ramp and into the home.

There was nothing I could do about my job right now. Nothing. I would have to figure it out later, right now I needed to see my grandfather.

"One issue at a time." I muttered as I walked up to the reception desk. "Hi." I waved to the receptionist, she glanced up looking to me over her glasses. She smiled at my presence. "I'm here to see Allen Palmer, I'm his granddaughter."

She typed a couple of things on the computer and looked up to me with a smile. She handed me a plastic badge. "Do you know where to go?"

I held the plastic badge that said VISITOR in bold letters. I hooked it to the bottom of my shirt. I nodded to her question. "Down the hall, take a left and then a right, third door?" I said, she nodded with a smile in confirmation. I nodded back a thanks and began my small journey down the white halls.

"Let me go! You have no idea what's going on or what those things are capable of!" I could hear my grandfather screaming down the hall. With a sigh I quickened my pace to his room. Upon entering I saw two of the orderlies trying to calm him down.

"Grandpa, calm down." I said as I took my purse off and placed it on one of the vacant chairs. Seeing me calmed him down enough for the orderlies to back off. They explained to my grandfather that they were down the hall and not to try anything.

"She's my granddaughter, what do you think I would do? You sick twisted people." He said as he smiled to me. "Skyla, dear." He reached out to me. I grasped his hand and walked over to his side. Relief grew through me, it must have been a decent day, he recognized me. I sat in the chair closest to him, he was watching something on the telly.

"We talked about this, you need to treat the orderlies better." I explained to the old man.

"Poppycock! They are dimwitted fools. If it wasn't for your company every week I would go insane." The old man said not even making eye contact. I frowned knowing it had been at least two weeks since I had seen him.

"What's going on now?" I sighed knowing it would be the same old thing.

"These news reports, sightings of large reptilian animals. Its back Skyla, I tell you the lights are back."

"I know." I admitted to him. His crusty look that could peel wallpaper off the walls diminished into shock.

"Don't you sass me granddaughter." He said sternly. "I know what I have seen in my life. I know what the future holds. I know what has happened in the past."

"Pop's I know. I saw one yesterday." I used his old nickname I had when I was a child. I was unsure how much detail I should go into about yesterday's events. There were so many emotions running through my veins. I smiled to him, tears beginning to well up in my eyes. "I believe you." I wiped away a tear that had fallen. He still looked shocked at my admittance.

"You saw one?" He choked out, tearing at my heartstrings. I nodded with an escaped strained laugh though my smile.

"I-uh- I think I want a soda. Do you want me to sneak you one in?" I asked. I knew how much he loved his cream soda. It was something I liked to do once in a while. I knew why he couldn't have them, being old his blood sugars were out of whack. The he gave me a toothless grin that went from ear to ear making my heart melt.

"That would be lovely." He said all being forgiven.

"Cream soda?" I asked giving him a smile and walked to the door. He nodded his head, much more relaxed then I had seen him in years. As I wandered the halls back to the lobby to the vending machine the guilt of putting him in here made itself-apparent.

The place was clean and was fully staffed. It was one of the best homes that money could buy, but I still felt like I had abandoned him here. I walked over to the machine and bought two cream sodas and began walking back to the room. I took a gander at the various historical landscape paintings down the hall.

"You-you've seen the lights?" my grandfather voice came from the room. I stood confused at who he was talking to. I was hoping it wasn't another hallucination. It happened once in a while where he would be remembering his past, thinking he saw someone he once knew. Someone in the room chuckled.

"Yes we have." a manly voice said.

I rounded the corner opening my mouth to speak. "Excuse me, may I help you?" I asked before looking at the two bodies. I looked up and almost dropped the drinks in my hands. Stephen and Nick stood in front of me. "What are you guys doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Stephen asked confused.

"This is my grandfather." I said gesturing to the old man sitting in his chair. Both of the men looked shocked at what I had said. I looked between the three men wondering what was happening.

"Excuse us." Nick said as he guided me out into the hall.

"What the hell?" I asked.

"We were going though our databases at the ARC and found your grandfather's name attached to a journal. Skyla, he's seen the anomalies before." Nick said.

"I know, that's why I put him in here. I thought he was crazy." I choked out, tears now coming down my cheeks.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Stephen asked, looking a little upset.

"I didn't know they were real until yesterday." I spat back at his look. I looked to the two men before I walked between them back into the room. I handed one of the soda's to my grandfather.

"Skyla Lock!" he said as I sat down in front of him. "That was horribly rude, I taught you better than that."

"Sorry, Pop's." I said noticing the men beginning to walk back in. "These are my friends, Nick Cutter and Stephen Hart. Remember when I was at the University? Professor Cutter? Remember me talking about him." I searched his face trying to see if any of it was registering. He shook his head no. Part of me was defeated as I looked to him. "It's okay." I said another tear squeezing out.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to Cutter standing next to me, Stephen coming over to the other side of me.

"Mr. Palmer," Cutter began with his thick Scottish accent filling the room. My grandfather looked over to him. "Stephen and I have been studying these orbs, these anomalies, for a while now. We're studying them and trying to keep the creatures in their time."

Stephen crouched by my side placing a hand on my leg out of sight of the other two men. A small form of comfort hidden from the world. I watched Stephen as he glanced at me before talking to my grandfather. "We heard that you have seen them before and wanted to ask some questions about them. We heard you might have a journal."

"I-uh-I do." he replied before looking to me. "It's in the house, under the floorboard in the lounge. The one you used to hide candy in." Both of us let out a chuckle.

"Okay." I said with a smile watching him drink his coveted cream soda.

"What have you all seen?" he asked with an excitement I hadn't seen in years. I looked between the men standing next to me. They glanced at each other before answering.

"The past, the future and all the creatures related to them. It's magnificent." Cutter said with a sparkle in his eye that was hard to miss.

"The future? Oh my." My grandfather shook a little as he spoke turning to me. "And you?" I glanced to Cutter unsure what to say.

"The future." he said, the blood ran from my face. Those creatures were from the future? I looked over to Stephen as he gave me a small shrug.

"Well, I don't remember what's in that journal. But don't let me stop you. Go find that journal. Find some answers." My grandfather said with a laugh. I let out a laugh at the old man.

"I'm sorry I never believed you." I admitted.

"Poppycock." He said with a smile. "Now go find some answers."

After our goodbyes I hitched a ride back to my place with Cutter and Stephen. We walked into my place as I darted to the lounge.

"You used to hide candy?" Stephen asked.

"What 9 year old didn't?" I asked back as I tested out each floor board not remembering the exact board.

One of them jiggled slightly as I kneeled to the ground. I pried the board up, a dusty old journal sat to greet me. I grabbed it holding it in my hands, knowing that my grandfather wasn't as crazy as he seemed. I almost forgot about the two men behind me. With an idea popping into my head I turned to them. I began handing the journal to them but pulled it back.

"I will let you use this journal, but it's my property since this is my house." They both nodded in agreement. "And I get to help."

"No." Stephen said.

"Yes." I argued with him, both of us turning to Cutter to help us.

"You do know a lot about prehistory and the creatures." Cutter thought out loud. "You were pretty good yesterday too." He looked over to Stephen who was shaking his head.

"What about your job?" Stephen butted in before Cutter could fully agree to anything.

"I got fired. I didn't show up yesterday due to being kidnapped by some mer-creature from the future." I explained. Stephen didn't look happy at all about this change of events. "Stephen, you know I can do this. You know this was my field of study."

"You were damn good too." Cutter said.

"Lester won't like this." Stephen said. Cutter rolled his eyes over to the younger man.

"And we care why?" he said, I didn't understand the meaning behind it, nor the person named Lester. "I think you have yourself a deal."

Nick Cutter gave me a huge smile, I shared one back. Stephen looked between the two of us like we had made the worlds biggest mistake.


	14. Journals and New Job

We scoured the journal, searching for clues on what the anomalies were and how they started. We searched them for hours before we needed a break. We went out for food before Nick called it a night and went home. Promising me he would swing by in the morning to take me to the ARC.

Apparently the ARC was an acronym for the Anomaly Research Center. It was their base of operations. They had briefly explained that they had just created a detector to find the anomalies when they happened. No longer relying on the emergency calls that came in about a creature coming though.

Stephen stayed the night, our relationship still evolving from the last couple days. We laid in the bed fully clothed looking at each other as he told me the stories of the previous anomalies.

"You've actually seen a Mosasaur?" I asked lifting my head off his chest to look up at him.

"They're giant and so beautiful. The way they flowed through the water was - ah." He said lost in his memories. I smiled up at his happiness of finally being able to talk about what he had been doing all day. "We better get some sleep. I don't know when Cutter will be here in the morning. I think he's anxious about making you part of the team." I looked up at him confused with a little hurt in my mind. "Lester isn't the most pleasant person to talk to, let alone negotiate with." I nodded it made sense.

My eyelids fluttered realizing how tired I was. "Okay." I muttered as we pulled the covers up. "You coming with us tomorrow?"

"I'll be there. I just have to go home first." He muttered out as he began falling asleep already. I nodded into his side as we fell fast asleep.

Stephen was gone when I woke up. I only had to wait for a couple minutes for Nick to show up. I locked my door walking down to the steps getting in the car with my old professor.

"Good Morning." He said as we settled in for the short ride. "How was your night?"

"It was decent." I said not knowing what else to say.

"So, you and Stephen." He said, not necessarily as a question more of a statement.

"I know. Who would have ever guessed?" I said.

Nick laughed in the seat next to me. "Me." He admitted. I looked over to him my eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?" I pressed.

He glanced from the road a moment and looked back. "The way you two always ogled at each other in my class. I was surprised when you passed the first test."

My mouth opened to argue. "We did not ogle. Well, maybe he did to every girl in the class. I wasn't special."

"Obviously you were." he said as we pulled up to a rather large building. We were in the parking lot where I had picked up Stephen when he was mauled by a raptor.

My mouth was gaped open as we walked into the building. Science equipment, offices, locker rooms this place was amazing.

"Hang out here." Nick said as he walked up a large ramp in the middle of the room with computers. I stood there as I was told to by Nick, still gapping at the whole facility, it was huge! How could something - oh wait the government. That's why.

"Pretty impressive when you first see it." a man said suddenly appearing to my side. I looked up and recognized him as Connor from the other day.

"Connor, right?" I asked smiling as I looking up at the young man.

His smile could light up a room. It was so genuine and expressive. "I don't think we ever got properly introduced."

"Skyla." I said holding out my hand, Connor shook it.

"So, you're joining the team?" he asked standing now with his hands in his front pockets.

"Cutter is trying at least. I still don't understand hardly any of this at all." I admitted looking around at the place.

"I still don't." He said with a laugh. " Some days we think we get one step forward, we move two back."

I could faintly hear Cutter yelling just a floor above us. "That can't be good." I sighed looking up.

"Lester will come around. We need more people with understanding all this. Especially with Helen messing things up all the time." Connor said.

My head snapped in his direction. "Helen?" I repeated the name. "As in Helen Cutter?"

The shock could be heard in my voice, the woman was dead, way before I even started my studies. Connor looked suddenly nervous, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"I've said too much." he admitted before awkwardly walking to the computers in the middle of the room. I followed him, noticing Nick walking down the ramp.

A loud siren and red lights enveloped the building and room we were in.

"Cutter!" Connor yelled, the man in question rushed to his side.

They began talking as the sirens and lights stopped in hushed tones.

 _Helen Cutter? How was she still alive? I remember seeing the pictures of the woman in Cutter's office, I had asked Stephen about it. Never seeing her around. He had told me she disappeared years prior and was presumed dead. My heart broke for my professor. But how - what was it 8, 9 years later - was she alive?_

I looked back to what the two men were doing. They were continuing to talk in hushed tones.

"Everything alright?" I asked walking up to the two. They both turned to me then to each other.

"Yes, just an anomaly sighting. We needed to reboot the system. It could take a minute." Connor explained as he went back to typing on the computer. I looked up to Nick.

"We need to talk." I said my eyebrows raised to hopefully persuade the man to walk away from Connor.

"That we do. Connor we will be back." Nick said as he lightly grabbed my arm pulling me through the doors back to where we had come from. We were standing in the locker room, full of exercise equipment and weights, we stopped in front of the lockers. Each one of them saying a person's name.

"This one is yours." He stated pointing to the locker on the far end of the row.

"Mine? So, I'm part of the team?" I said in disbelief. not He simply nodded to me before taking a seat on the bench. "But I heard yelling-"

Nick interrupted what I had been prepared to say next. "Lester does that. A lot actually. Welcome to the team." He smiled a genuine smile to me.

"So, since we are now on a team. Care to explain the reappearance of your dead wife?" I asked bluntly. He looked taken aback for a moment before shaking his head into his hands muttering Connor under his breath. "I mean as a fellow team mate I feel I should know these things."

He took a deep breath in, letting it out in a sigh. "The short version is she's been traveling through the anomalies for the last 9 years. Studying them and the creatures from the past and now the future. No one has heard or seen her in months."

I looked at him quizzically, there was something else. "Why do I get the feeling that, that's not necessarily a good thing?"

Another sigh, he seemed to be debating on telling me something. "The day you picked Stephen up, after he was attacked by a creature, it was my first day in this dimension."

 _Dimension?_

"Wait, what?"

"Before I knew Helen was alive, we had found the anomalies. There was a woman named Claudia Brown. She helped us, she was part of the team. One certain anomaly Helen came through, we had known what she was doing by then. But with this anomaly she had brought through a creature from the future. One hell of a predator." he said almost getting lost in his thoughts before he continued. "We went to take back to its proper time. Something-Something happened and it altered time. Either switching dimensions or making it so Claudia Brown never existed."

"That's why you were confused when I picked Stephen up." I realized. "You had no idea we were dating."

"You believe me?" He asked shocked.

"Why wouldn't I? A couple days ago I thought my grandfather was crazy talking about glowing orbs and past timelines."

We sat there looking at the lockers and the floor letting everything sink in.

"No one, except maybe Connor, believes me." He admitted. I looked over to him as he continued to stare off into space. "You'll meet a woman, named Jenny Lewis. She is Claudia Brown. She looks just like her. Sometimes even acts like her. But I'm realizing more and more the Claudia Brown I knew, no longer exists."

My heart broke all over again for my professor. He could never seem to catch a break when it came to his love life. I reached out to him, my hand resting on his.

"I believe you, Nick." I said as he nodded a thanks.


	15. Clau-uh- Jenny

It had been two hours since our locker room conversation. Connor, Nick and I sat in front of the computers staring at what seemed to be an open anomaly.

"So, you think someone hacked into your technology? Why would someone do that?" I whispered to Connor.

"I have no idea." He admitted as we continued to stare.

The sound of heels clicking grabbed our attention as we glanced up to the ramp. A woman wearing a white dress, gold shoes and a ridiculous hat walked down towards us.

"This better not be a false alarm?" she stated.

"Why, were you busy?" Nick asked.

"Engagement party." She stated.

"Nice, anyone we know?" Connor asked.

"Yes, mine actually." She said. Connor and I both looked to the back of Nick's head to see if we could notice a reaction from him.

"Not my idea." she began. "Future mother-in-law. It's all rather dreary. So-"

"You'd rather be with us?" Nick interrupted.

"Well I was going to say 'any excuse'. So yes, even you." She glanced over to me. "I see we have someone new. Jenny Lewis." She walked over and held her hand out to me. I took it in mine, she seemed smaller than me, slimmer and more fragile.

"Skyla Lock." I introduced.

"Ah, the infamous Skyla." She said I looked at her quizzically then to the two men.

"We have an active site." Nick said stopping the conversation from going any further.

"Right, then. I'll go get dressed." Jenny said turning to the direction of the locker rooms.

"No there's no time. The Anomaly has been open for two hours, maybe longer." Nick explained. I had a feeling he didn't really want her to change, she looked quite nice in her dress.

"Right, well if I break a heel, then you are going to pay." She said with a smile of daggers. You could tell she was joking but somewhere in that smile I wondered if she really meant it. She began to walk off towards the exit as we all turned in our chairs to her.

"She is gorgeous. I can see why you fancy her, rather Claudia." I said loud enough for both of the men to hear.

"She looks amazing!" Connor said right after I did, no time to even process what I had said.

"So does a velociraptor." Nick said plainly, turning back to the computers. Connor and I looked at each other with a look of confusion and slight concern. Both of us shrugged our shoulders to the man in question.

"Right well. Let's get the team called." Connor said turning to me. He pulled out his mobile to call Abby and Stephen, letting them know an anomaly was open and to get here as soon as possible.

He called Abby first, I couldn't help but smile as he talked to the other woman. A smile creeped on his face and a slight blush when he notice I was watching him. He ended the call abruptly before calling Stephen. I looked back to Nick and the screens in front of me. My mind was completely overloaded with information. How was any of this even possible?

"Stephen said he'll be here in a moment. He was out for a jog, went home to shower. Abby will meet us there." Connor said grabbing my attention from the screens.

Nick nodded his head and turned to us standing up. "Alright. Clau- Jenny and I will go now, you guys come when Stephen gets here." Nick said as he walked off to grab his coat.

Connor and I stood there as we watched the two meet up and leave to the anomaly.

"Does he do that often?" I asked.

"What?"

"Refer to Jenny as Claudia?"

Connor looked at me with concern. "Ever since we came back from dropping the future predators off in the past, he's done it."

"He told me a little when you dropped the bomb about Helen. He said you were the only one on the team who seemed to believe him. Why is that?" I asked genuinely interested on why he thought that way.

Connor looked at me like he was sizing me up for a moment before he continued. "With all of this, it's possible that there are other dimensions, other timelines with and without this happening, other timelines when we are completely different people." He paused for a moment as he glanced back at the screens, I assumed to see if there was any changes. "We really don't know anything about this. All we know is somehow, there is a rip in time or something like it that is causing the past and the future to come to the present."

I thought about what he said for a moment before a haunting thought crept into my mind. "Not that I am a physics major or philosopher, but what about the Grandfather Paradox?" Connor turned to me looking almost excited at the thought of talking about something like this. "I mean, it was completely theoretical. Traveling through time is something that science fiction is based on. But this is real, we're not traveling it has just appeared to us."

He looked at my with the same curious look. "Basically you're asking if we stepped on a lizard in a prehistoric era, how would it affect us in the present or the future?"

"Exactly? I mean I'm not talking about going to find our grandparents when they were younger and kill them so we cease to exist. But what is the effects on us going into the past even to just look?"

"Cutter has thought about this I think. That's why we try to get the animals back to the era they came from. That's why we've been studying, trying to find out why this is happening and how long it has been happening." Connor explained. I nodded digesting all the information.

I could feel a headache coming on with all of this information. I was an open minded person, but even then it was a lot to take in and think about on the grand scale of things. I was about to say something else when out of my peripheral vision I saw Stephen walk through the doors.

"Ready?" He asked as he walked over to Connor and I, glancing behind us to the screens.

"Let's get this show on the road." I said as I grabbed my jacket off the back of the chair. I followed the two men as Connor caught Stephen up on what was happening. We walked out to the garage and to a car. I hopped into the back as the two got into the front.

We drove in silence for a couple of moments, it was almost awkward silence. None of us had ever been "alone" with each other.

"So, Connor, how is Abby?" I asked. I had to hold back a laugh, as Connor choked on air in shock that I had asked. I heard a muffled laugh from Stephen trying not to let his amusement show.

"I-uh-I.." Connor stuttered at the woman's name.

"Relax Connor." I said touching his shoulder, laughing under my breath.


	16. First Anomaly

We pulled up to a construction site that looked to be temporarily abandoned. Abby was already there beginning to take things out of her truck. As soon as the truck was stopped we got out and began taking things out of the back.

"What would you do in my position?" Connor asked. I tried not to smile as wide as I did.

Connor had talked about the blonde haired woman the entire drive here. Stephen continued to look at me in the rearview mirror as if to say, 'Why did you bring this up?'

"What did you say to her exactly?" Stephen prodded, surprisingly in a voice that didn't sound annoyed. I felt like Connor almost idolized Stephen in his confidence with women.

"Well, you know - I - I think - I think I said I love her." Connor said, both Stephen and I froze and slowly turned to Connor. I glanced over to Stephen awkwardly, we were in a similar position. The infamous L word being dropped too early.

"You think?" Stephen asked not noticing the glance I gave him.

"I did say that, it's just - She was a bit busy at the time she might have forgotten." Connor said becoming flustered about the situation.

"She didn't forget." I piped in. I couldn't believe how naive Connor was about women. He was older than me by at least 4 years, how could he be so naive.

"Women dont forget things like that." Stephen further explained as he gave me a hint of a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and looked over to Connor placing a hand on his shoulder as before. "She's waiting for you to make the next move." I told him.

 _Cause that's exactly what I'm doing. Waiting for Stephen to make that next move, that next leap._

"Really?" Connor asked looking between Stephen and I.

Stephen nodded his head. "Yeah."

Connor nodded back to the man. It was as if Stephen was Connor's love guru. Connor opened his mouth to say something before he closed it. He let out a frustrated sigh. "Right, so what's that?"

"Well that's up to you. Be confident, confidence is sexy." Stephen said with a smirk. "If you love Abby just tell her."

I smirked at the man I was dating. This was a whole new side of him that I had never seen. I began to really wonder about the him. He always seemed aloof and moody to everyone. I knew him as that and more. It seemed so easy for him to just talk about and explain relationships like this. If he was so nonchalant about this and giving advice to Connor to tell Abby that he loved her, why hadn't he told me outright? Or the even more haunting thought for me, did he not love me and that's why he never outright told me?

"Just tell her?" Connor asked pulling me from my thoughts.

"Yeah." Stephen said matter of factly as he took a large box from the back of the truck.

"You wouldn't do it for me would you?" Connor asked Stephen with pleading eyes.

"NO!" Both Stephen and I yelled. Connor jumped at the sudden outburst, both Stephen and I shook our heads smiling.

Connor nodded slowly at the thought. "I can be confident anyway."

"But aren't you forgetting someone?" Stephen asked catching Connors attention. "Caroline."

"Who's Caroline?" I asked suddenly more invested into the conversation than I was before.

"Connor's lady friend." Stephen explained.

"Connor. Word of advice. One girl at a time. Dump her in person if you love Abby." I said with a sigh. How did this conversation escalated to this. I rolled my eyes at the two men. "I'm going to go say hi."

I began walking over towards Abby to assist the woman with the items she had. "Hey, long time no see."

"So Cutter did it?" She spun around with a smile. "You're part of the team?"

"I sure am." I smiled at the woman.

"Excellent. Will you help me with some of this?" She asked I helped her carry the cases of items to where Nick had told us.

We stood in front of a large drainage pipe, the orb floating beautifully in it. We all stood in front of the anomaly before turning to Connor.

"Go on, it's your big day." Nick said to the young man.

"Seriously, guys, prepare to be amazed." Connor said.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Stephen standing next to me.

"Connors new invention." Stephen whispered in my ear.

Connor pulled out what looked like a tank version of a remote control car toy with a satellite on top. All of us stood and stared at his new invention with uncertainty written on all of our faces.

"What?" Connor asked defensively still holding his invention. No one responded we just continued to have the same look on our faces. "It's a prototype, it's not meant to be sexy."

Connor walked around the box he had it in and placed it at our feet.

"That thing's not going to make it through the pipe, let alone the anomaly." Stephen expressed what we were all thinking.

"Could we just have a little bit of faith, please? And a little bit of silence?" Connor said, once again we were silent trying to study the invention. "Thank you."

Connor began using the controller, moving the invention up a ramp and into the pipe.

"Is that my hairdryer?" Abby popped up looking at Connor with curiosity. He looked over to Stephen and I briefly. I had to control not rolling my eyes or laugh out loud.

"Might be." Connor admitted continuing to control the vehicle walking with it to the pipe's edge. "Now I know what Galileo had to put up with."

We all looked at each other trying not to laugh as the vehicle went into the anomaly. Connor walked over to his laptop that he had set up on a barrel, using it as a makeshift table. We were able to see inside the anomaly and see if there was anything in there that could harm us.

"High CO2, low oxygen." Connor explained looking at the readings from the vehicle.

"It's pre-Carboniferous. Maybe Ordovician or Silurian. There's no dinosaurs, no mammals, there's no birds." Nick explained as we watched the screen showing basically nothing but sand and some rock. "Wait a minute, what's that?" Nick said pointing to the screen. Connor moved the camera on the vehicle to get a better look.

"That's a girl, a human girl." I muttered under my breath.

"What is she doing?" Jenny asked.

"She's looking for her dog." Nick said.

"She might be injured." Abby pointed out, the girl was just sitting on a rock.

"There's nothing really inside the Silurian to injure her. You know, we're talking a few basic plants and bugs." Connor said.

"She could have twisted an ankle on those rocks." I said.

"How big are the bugs?" Abby asked.

"Bug-size, I think." Connor said. "As periods go, it's a pretty safe one to get lost in."

"She must be terrified." Jenny said.

"We have to get her out." Nick said

"Let's do it." Stephen said.

All of us began moving around getting ready to go inside the anomaly. I picked up one of the bags with water, checking on how much water was in the bag.

"What are you doing?" Stephen asked, holding his own bag.

"Getting ready to go in." I said gesturing to the anomaly in the pipe.

"No you're not." He pointed out.

"Yes, I am. We had a deal and I am on the team. Therefore I am going in with you and Nick." I said, Cutter looking up at his name being spoken.

Stephen began to argue with me again when Nick walked over interrupting him. "Stephen, she's right. This is her first anomaly and its not too risky of one. It's really a good option."

Stephen looked between us, visibly not happy about the situation. He walked away before saying anything else. Nick smirked to me before he walked off continuing to get everything ready to go.


	17. Not a Normal Sized Scorpion

"Are we ready to go?" Nick asked as Stephen and I walked up to the pipe. Abby and Connor stood behind us. They were going to stay behind to monitor the rover and us.

I nodded as Stephen strapped his bag to his back. "Can we go already?" He said impatient. Nick gave him a look and nodded to Connor, Abby and I.

Nick and Stephen walked through the floating crystal orb like it was nothing. I stood for a moment reluctant about going through it. I was nervous, anyone who said differently was lying. With a deep breath I walked through the anomaly.

I didn't know what I was expecting to happen. I didn't know if I was expecting to feel different as I walked into another world. But within the blink of an eye I went from a construction site in England to a desert in a land before time. It took my breath away, literally. I shuffled along, catching up to the two males who were walking in silence through the sand. None of us spoke for a while grasping the situation and our landscape, watching for bugs as Connor said.

"Have you got a headache?" Nick asked breaking the deafening silence.

"Yeah." Both Stephen and I responded as we walked through the sand

"Yeah, it's like being at altitude, there's no oxygen." Nick pointed out.

"I feel like I'm a lung short." I said as we continued to trudge along.

"Maybe that's why the kid hasn't moved." Stephen said, gesturing to the very far away rocks the girl was on.

"Could be. She's smart if that's the case." I said breathlessly.

We went back to relative silence for a brief moment when we could hear something very faint. It sounded like a rustling noise you would hear when something moved through a pile of leaves.

"Can you hear that?" Nick asked us. We turned around to what looked like large millipedes running around.

"That's odd. Not really millipede like behavior, more like an ants. Or frightened rats." I pointed out as we watched the large millipede scurry along together in a group.

We shrugged it off and continued on our journey. The more I thought about the millipedes the more my mind began to kick into overdrive. At the time it hadn't registered that the large millipedes were real. I had seen them in fossil form and there they were scurrying along next to us. The reality of what we were doing slowly became relevant at that moment.

"What's that?" Nick asked grabbing my attention.

In the distance there were bags, something definitely not from this time, in the sand ahead of us. Curious, we all ran over to the objects to inspect the familiar yet foreign items. They looked high tech as we approached, not just bags but weapons as well.

"Heckler-Koch G36" Stephen said as he picked up the rifle.

"Isn't that military grade rifle?" I asked.

Stephen shook his head. "No, this isn't army issue, this is a classic mercenary's gun." He explained to me, his mood lightening a little from what it had been from before.

"Hard drive, night-vision, this is serious stuff." Nick said as he went through the various items that was in one of the bags. I didn't want to touch the items, unsure of why they were here.

"Why would mercenaries be here in a place like this?" I asked. The obvious question sounded stupid to me as it came out of my mouth.

"He's here." Nick said as a matter of factly as if we were supposed to know.

"Who is?" Stephen asked for the both of us. I squinted to the two of them, the sun seeming like it was getting brighter.

"There's no footprints leading away. They've left their water and just disappeared." Nick said ignoring his question as he put on the goggles to see if there was a recorded image. He took it off a few moments later breathing heavy with an even more concerned look on his face from before.

"What did you see?" I asked concerned at his changed demeanor.

"They're all dead." Nick said looking to the other gear then to me.

"Who?" I asked.

"You're not surprised by any of this, are you? What do you know?" Stephen asked pressuring the man.

"I don't know anything." Nick said defensively.

My eyebrows rose at the tone of his voice. I was obviously missing something very important. Tension suddenly filled the air.

"Cutter, there's a traitor on the team." Stephen said like it was obvious.

"Maybe." Nick said with a shrug, not confirming or denying his friends thoughts. I watched the two interact further, staying out of it, trying to gather information.

"It's Lester." Stephen said confidently.

"It's someone." Nick said, obviously not thinking it was Lester.

"Come on, they're playing us, they have been since the beginning." Stephen let out. My full attention snapped to Stephen.

 _What the hell was happening? What were they talking about? Traitors? Being played? What exactly were these two friends of mine caught up in? What had I dragged myself into? I remembered earlier Connor telling Nick and I that someone had hacked into his system._

"I don't know that, neither do you." Nick almost snapped at him.

"Fine, you admitted you don't know. But rather than sharing with us you shut us out. We're meant to be a team." Stephen said in a pressured tone.

"You sound like Helen." Nick pointed out. A shiver rolled down my spine at her name. Something still wasn't right about that whole situation and my gut instinct let me know it wasn't good.

"We don't have time for this we gotta get going." I said. Both of them stared at each other for another moment before we began picking up items we could use. I noticed Nick grabbing some of the items for evidence shoving them in his bag as we continued walking in the hellish sand.

The sun was sweltering as the heat came down on us. I couldn't understand how Stephen was wearing a long sleeved black shirt. We were getting closer and closer to the girl on the rocks, the poor dear must be dehydrated at this point.

"Hey, over here!" We could faintly hear her cries for help.

"Hold on a minute. What is she saying?" Nick asked. We tried to be more quiet and not breath so loud.

"I can't hear her." Stephen said.

"Come on let's get going." Cutter said as we continued walking a little more.

I strained my hearing, trying to hear what the girl was shouting at us. Another chill ran down my spine as I thought I heard the girl say run.

"I think she's telling us to run." I spoke up, with more caution.

As we took another step towards where the girl on the rocks sand blew upwards in front of us like a geyser.

"What the hell is that?" Stephen said, all of us taking a step back.

"I don't know." Cutter said, no fear in his voice.

All of us stood still as we watched as a mound of sand raced towards us. Not one of us even thinking of moving as it neared us, going under us, almost making us almost lose our footing. We turned around watching as it continued on before it stopped completely. Within seconds of it stopping a creature jumped out of the sand, resembling a rather large scorpion.

"That's not a normal sized scorpion." I said in complete shock and awe. Another creature emerged as they snapped their claws before burrowing coming back towards us.

"Run!" Cutter yelled as we barreled forward.

"Please come on! Get to the rocks!" The little girl yelled her words becoming more clearer as we neared.

I looked back to see if the creature was behind us. It's claws grasping the air as it tried to get us. With one large leap all of us landed on the rocks where the little girl still stood. The moment we turned around to see the approaching creatures they had disappeared in the sand below.

We stood catching our breath. My mind racing at the creature I just saw, the creature I had only seen drawings of, the creature that was only briefly described in books.

"You're welcome." the girl spoke as the three of us continued to pant. We looked over to the girl with amusement on our faces.


	18. Fading Anomaly

"So, you're okay?" Nick said as we took out our water and the oxygen from the mercenaries. "Here," Nick handed her his oxygen mask. The girl was unsure of what to do. "Make you feel better." Nick said convincing the girl. She took the mask reluctantly placing it to her face as she breathed in the sweet oxygen.

She took a couple deep breaths before admitting that it was indeed much better. Stephen handed the girl his canteen, she graciously took it and began sipping the cool water. I took a gulp from my own feeling the cool liquid travel down into my stomach.

"Now, we've gotta get you out of here." Nick said as the girl looked up to him.

"You're going to rescue me?" she asked looking up to him.

"Yeah, do you have any objections?" Nick said back with a smirk.

"I was planning my own way back." She let him know with confidence.

I smiled at the girl and out of the corner of my eye I noticed Stephen smiling at me. His upset mood from before completely dissipated. I glanced over in his direction. It could have been the smoldering heat but he looked absolutely stunning standing against the sandy backdrop.

The girl continued to talk to Nick, mocking him with an attitude she seemed to have. I smiled at the two bickering wondering why Nick never had children. Besides the fact his wife "died" so many years ago. Was it the love for her that made it so he never truly moved on?

When I looked back to Stephen a new feeling started swirling around in my gut as he looked back to me. One I had never felt before. It was a thrilling feeling really, like a swarm of butterflies decided to take off into the sky all at once. A horrifying thought shimmered in my mind. The thought of having an absolute future with the blue eyed man to my side. A future with wee children that looked like mini versions of ourselves running around, giving us attitude that we once gave each other. As soon as it shimmered into my mind it was gone, like a mirage. I shut it down deep into my subconscious. It was obscure thinking those thoughts, completely asinine to be quite frank. I blamed the heat and lack of oxygen.

"She's fine, she doesn't need any help." Nick said in Stephen's and my direction. Our attention now fully back on the other two.

"You can tag along with me, if you want." the girl offered, with a deep fear lingering in her voice of being left alone here.

"Well thanks." Nick said nodding to the girl. "What are those things?" he pointed back to the sand.

"Don't know." The girl replied. "They're pretty horrible. They killed the soldiers."

"You saw that?" I asked the girl. She turned to me, squinting at the bright light.

"Heard it, mostly." She looked to Stephen before returning her attention to Nick. "All I know is that they come if you walk on the sand."

"Yeah, they must sense the vibrations." Nick explained.

"Seismic communication, like moles." I stated. Nick gave me a slight smirk and a nod.

"Well, we're going to have to go the long way around. If we stick to the rocks, we can get close enough to the anomaly." Stephen pointed out as the girl touched her leg as if in pain. "What's wrong with your leg?" Stephen asked noticing the action too.

"Twisted it." She stated before looking up to him. "I made it to the rocks, but they ate my dog."

"No, no, no, no, your dog's alive. She's on the other side." Nick explained.

"Cool." the girl said with a smile before it fell. "Oh, she left me behind, then. That's cold."

"Give me a look at your leg." Nick said looking at the girls leg.

"You know, we wouldn't have known you were here if she hadn't come back through. So she may have left you but she also saved you." I said to the girl trying to reassure her. She gave me a slight smile before Stephen made a comment that she couldn't walk on the leg as he looked over Nick who was inspecting it.

"Duh! Why do you think I've been sat here?" She snapped back to Stephen. I smirked trying to suppress my laugh.

"Come on, I'm going to have to carry you." Stephen said.

"No way!" She exclaimed pulling her leg from Nick's grasp.

"What's your name anyway?" Stephen asked.

"Taylor." She replied. "And I ain't baggage no one has to carry me."

"She ain't baggage." I said matter of factly with humor in my eyes as I looked to my male companions.

"She ain't baggage." Nick repeated with a smile.

"Taylor ain't baggage." Stephen confirmed letting us all know that we were all on the same page.

Nick, Stephen and I picked up all the gear we had retrieved from the soldiers and walked along the rocks, Taylor leading the way.

"So, is this some kind of giant wind-up?" She asked turning back to us. I followed directly behind her, knowing I was carrying less than the other two and could assist faster and easier if needed.

"What do you mean, dear?" I asked as we continued on walking.

"One minute I'm in Hackney, and the next I'm in the desert." she explained. "The way I look at it, I probably been hypnotized or something and you brought me here as this big joke. I bet there are cameras everywhere."

"Yeah, and the public gets to vote which one of us gets eaten first." Nick said behind me jokingly.

"Ah, it's cooler than Big Brother." she said.

"Alright." Nick said.

We continued walking along the rocks, playing a desert primal version of the floor is lava. There was only one time it was really needed when we had to make a larger jump to an adjoining rock and Taylor's foot hit the sand for a hot moment. I collided into her to make sure that she was fully on the rock. I could see the lumps in the sand moving along as if nothing had happened. She claimed I was overreacting but the look on her face said she was grateful.

We made it over another sandhill where we saw the crystal like structure floating.

"Stephen it's fading." Nicks words sent utter misery to my core. Before I could react Stephen grabbed Taylor picking her up and putting her over his shoulder.

We began to walk faster, almost jogging towards the anomaly. Taylor began screaming to put her down over and over again to Stephen, who ignored the small girl as we continued to near edge of our rock. After we had made a decent stride in distance, and probably tired of getting hit, Stephen put Taylor down as we went to the edge of the rocks. We stood calculating the distance in the sand between us and the way home. Creatures moved under the sand letting their presence known. We would need a miracle to reach it alive.

As we stood in the desert wasteland, we watched as our way home disappeared. Stephen sat down in defeat, Taylor slowly sank into a sitting ball as Nick and I stood there all of us staring at the now anomaly-less horizon.

"What happened?" Taylor asked. "When are we going back?" Stephen reached out to the little girl and patted her shoulder. Cutter sat down next to Stephen. It wasn't until this moment that I realized, the likelihood of the anomaly reopening. The only ability for us to get back home was not very likely. We were stuck there and all of us were exhausted.


	19. The Truth About Helen

After a few moments of rest Nick pulled a device out of his bag and turned it on.

"What is that?" Taylor asked, voicing my curiosity as well.

Nick lifted the device for a moment before he began tinkering with it. "This device can detect anomalies and where there is one opened. Like the computers we have back at the lab but portable."

"You guys do this a lot?" Taylor asked looking at the two men and then to myself.

"It's kind of our job." I said, feeling odd to say it out loud since it was my first day and all.

"Neat." She said begrudgingly.

"We need to keep moving. That one may not open again but another one might nearby and I might not be able to detect it from here." Nick explained again, trying to convince us to get up and moving. We slowly got up, gathering our stuff again and began walking back in the direction we were heading before.

We eventually came across a mini slot canyon within the rocks. My mind still going on overdrive about all of this but especially the anomalies.

When Connor and I had talked about them earlier we talked about the grandfather paradox. About how us being in another time could affect the future. We never really got to the topic of them disappearing and reappearing if they even did that.

 _I mean if Helen had been traveling through them for the last 9 years or so, she really must know more than she's letting on. I had this feeling that she had been in our time period multiple times. Something about hopping so much through literal time, she had to have gone to the future more than once. Right? It was inevitable, wasn't it? Did these orbs begin when life did? or before that? Or were they manufactured somewhere along the timeline?_ I felt light headed as we continued walking through a specific canyon and grabbed a hold of the ledge of a rock before collapsing.

Stephen spun around at the sudden commotion and closed the space between us.

"You alright?" He asked under his breath as Taylor and Nick continued on. I nodded as Stephen helped me stand up straight and we continued to follow.

"So I know that you haven't been able to tell me much until a couple days ago." I began taking in short panting breaths between my words. Stephen nodded as he guided me through the canyon. "But what do you know of Helen? Connor and I were talking before this. He said that she was back, in a sense. That she has been traveling through the anomalies for the last 9 years. What has she said about these anomalies? About her experiences?"

I couldn't help but take notice at the mention of Helen's name Stephen stood straighter. As if he was electrically shocked into a moment of reality. He looked up to where Nick was walking around with the device in his hands. "She hasn't told us much." He admitted. "She's been playing games with us mostly. Appearing when we least expect it and dropping hints about what we are going to be experiencing then disappears again." He looked over to me like there was something else he wanted to say.

"So, she hasn't said much of anything about what is going on?" I asked.

"Just that it's getting worse." he said.

"But nothing on how she can predict where each anomaly goes? When it appears? When it comes into our time?" The questions began to grate on my nerves. _How could you have the potential answers to time itself and not want to share it with the world?_

"No, nothing like that." he said. I looked over to him and stopped walking the look on his face was one that I had never seen before but one that was fairly familiar. He looked as though he had something to say but didn't want to say it, but mixed with a certain judgement aspect.

"What is it? What are you not telling me?" I asked him, letting Nick and Taylor get a little ahead of us.

"A lot has happened in the last couple of days, with us. You just found out about all of this." He said pointing around the desert land surrounding us. "But I guess with you now being on the team you'll find out sooner or later." He took a rather deep breath in before letting it out. "Before Helen went missing we were having an affair."

My whole body froze as I stared at my boyfriend. It felt as if the world around me just stopped and came crashing to a halt. As those words came out of his mouth everything that I had ever experience with him I had to analyze. After a couple of moments I realized he was still speaking about the situation.

"Nick now knows and that's why things were so tense when you picked me up after the raptor attack." Stephen said. _The raptor attack? So after Nick comes to this dimension from another he finds out that his best friend and his wife were having an affair behind his back._

"Why didn't you tell me before this?" I asked him, shock still evident in my voice.

"It wasn't relevant Skyla. We were calling it quits before she even disappeared, I couldn't do it anymore. After Helen disappeared I decided the affair would disappear too. It was never supposed to come to light. You have to believe me." He was now pleading with me about this.

"This is such an inappropriate time to talk about this." I didn't even realize I was speaking until it was over. "We're stuck in the literal past and you just admitted to me you had an affair with your best friends wife. Granted it was, what, almost 10 years ago but still, Stephen, what the hell?" I blurted out. I looked up to him. He looked like a kicked puppy. "I have to ask. Have you seen her alone? Without the team? Have you done things with her since she appeared?" I asked, now truly fearful of the answer. Hannah's conversation about him breaking my heart creeping into my mind.

"No." He said simply and sternly. "No, I haven't seen her alone. I haven't done anything with her. Please believe me when I say I've only been with you." His eyes were pleading with me to believe him. I nodded and forced a smile.

"Ok." I said.

"Ok." he said, nodding.

"Thank you for telling me." I managed to get out as I walked a little closer to him. I slowly wrapped my arms around his midsection pulling him into a hug. My mind continuing to race.

"Hey, come on you two. I found an opening I'm going to try and see if we can get anything on the device." Nick said interrupting the moment. Stephen and I let each other go and walked up to where Nick was. The whole time my mind rethinking my entire relationship with Stephen.


	20. Sandstorm

"There isn't a way out of here is there?" Taylor asked as we stood in the area Nick was talking about. We looked around the canyon with hope and most of it diminishing by the second.

Nick turned to the little girl. "Sure there is." he said.

"You're lying." She stated, challenging the older man. "Adults always lie. My mum told me she was going to be alright, but she wasn't. She died. And now you're lying too, just like her." She sat down in defeat on one of the rocks. "We're going to die in this stupid place."

Nick, Stephen and I walked closer to the girl. Nick taking a seat next to her as she began to cry.

"You're right." Nick began. "Um… We're not in great shape right now, but I can promise you one thing. We're not going to die. Okay?"

"There are clouds, due east, which could mean a body of water, vegetation, so food and shelter." Stephen said, giving the girl some hope. "We should head that way."

I patted the girls leg that wasn't injured. "You know, these guys have been through tons of these anomalies. Seen much worse and been through much worse. If anyone is capable of getting is out of here, it's these two." I said, forcing everything that had been said in the last few moments out of my head. "I've known these two for a long time. They know what they're doing."

"We stay on the rocks as far as we can, alright?" Nick said with a reassuring smile and stood up.

Taylor stood up shortly after and looked at Stephen. "You try and pick me up again, I'll bite you." She turned and followed Nick as he continued walking.

I smiled at Stephen despite everything that had just gone on. He smirked back to me as we continued on.

To get our minds off of everything that was happening Taylor thought it would be a good idea to play the game 'Would you rather?' As we continued on walking along the rocks she began asking all sorts of ridiculous would you rather, questions.

"Would you rather die of thirst or be eaten?" She asked.

"Do I get to choose what I'm eaten by or is it these creatures?" I asked.

"Obviously not and of course these creatures. I think I would rather be eaten. At least it's quick, two bites, done." She said.

"Unless you're being eaten the smaller ones, that's a little more than two bites." I explained.

"Well, you're more like four or five bites so it would be worse for you." she argued, I let out a laugh as we continued walking.

"Can't you not try and be positive for five minutes?" Nick asked as he continued to lead the way. "You know hopeful."

"We're probably the best food around. Imagine you're a giant sand thing living on nothing but millipede, then you get to taste people for the first time. All gooey and warm, we would be like a delicacy. So, who do you think they'll eat first?" She said.

"Why don't you sing a song or whistle or something? Anything. Just stop talking." Nick asked.

"Whoa, whoa." Stephen said stopping all of us as we looked to him.

"What?" Nick said.

"Do you see that?" Stephen said as we followed his line of sight seeing a nothing but more sand and desert. We looked back to him. "Forget it."

"Are you seeing things, love?" I asked him as we continued on walking. He shook his head 'no' and took out his canteen of water taking a sip before putting it back.

We had been walking for miles, making it to another slot canyon. All of us once in a while taking out our canteens and drinking the precious water. I began to feel the same way Taylor had before. Doubt slowly trickling into my thoughts of us ever getting out of here.

An odd noise was heard as Nick stopped walking.

"Oh thank god." he said pulling the device out, Stephen ran over to him.

"Oh yes." Stephen said looking at the device.

"What is it?" I asked as Taylor and I walked closer to the two.

"That's hope. We're found a new anomaly." Nick explained.

"Which way?" Stephen asked.

"I can hear a train." Taylor said.

"There are no trains in the Silurian." Stephen said.

"It's not a train." Nick said looking in the distance. We followed where he was looking. A large sand storm was swirling towards us. "Sandstorm. Run!"

"Come on, Taylor." Stephen said as we ran towards the rocks in the slot canyon.

We pressed ourselves into the natural holes in the side of the canyon to wait out the storm.


	21. Mystery Man

After what seemed like hours but was only minutes we emerged from the holes in the canyon. All of us coughing trying to get the sand particles and dust out of our system.

"I dropped the damn detector." Nick admitted as we all stood up, brushing the sand off of ourselves.

"So this is where hope gets you." Taylor said holding Stephen's hand for support.

Nick shook the comment off and started looking for the detector. We backtracked a little in hopes to find it. After a couple moments of searching I wanted to give up. "The odds of us finding the detector after a sandstorm like that are minimal." I said aloud to whomever would listen. As soon as I said it we heard a beep from the detector. As we walked closer to it the beeping got louder.

I glanced back to Stephen and Taylor, still holding hands. I wondered if she had a crush on him, she was using him for balance, he wanted to keep a closer eye on her or all three. I settled with all three leaving a smirk on my face. Nick bent down and picked up the detector, beeping louder as he brushed the sand away.

"Remind me to tell Connor he did a good job with these things." Nick said.

Stephen nodded his head before speaking. "Which way?" We all huddled around the detector.

Before Nick could answer him an unmistakable click of a gun cocking echoed through the relatively silent desert. We all looked in the direction of the noise to see a man holding the same type of gun we had found earlier. One of the soldiers had survived the massacre from the night before. He walked a little closer, pointing the gun towards us. "I'll take that." The man said.

"I thought it might be you." Nick said. I looked from him to Stephen to see if there was any reaction. Stephen was looking at Nick with the same quizzical look I had. How did Nick know this man?

"There's only one ticket out of here and I'm taking it." The man said cocking his head as a gesture for Nick to throw the detector to him. Seconds later Nick threw him the detector, not having another choice in the matter. The detector landed at the mans feet. "And the water." I looked from Nick to the man. Without water we would die here in a couple hours, tops. Nick reached to the pack and pulled out a single canteen. The man shook his head. "No, no, all of it." He knew that Nick was trying to keep some for ourselves. Nick shoved the water into his bag and threw it to the man.

"Without water, we're going to be dead in a couple of hours." Nick voiced what we were all thinking.

The man picked up the bag and strapped it to his shoulder. "Tough break." he said without any remorse and began to back away.

Nick walked closer to him off the safety of the rocks. "Come on, take us with you." He said as the man continued stepping further out into the sand. The man shook his head and continued on walking backwards. "At least take the girls with you, they've done nothing wrong." He continued to move forward towards the man. "At least leave us some water." The man shot at Nick's feet to warn him to stop walking forward. I smirked when I realized what Nick was doing. He was pushing the man further out into the sand. And since the man just fired a gun shot into the ground, it would alert the creatures.

"You follow me, I'll shoot you." the man said.

Nick took a couple steps further. "Well we're dead anyway." he said as the man shot the ground again.

"I'm warning you." the man said.

"You think I'm scared of you?" Nick replied.

"You should be." The man said. We watched on as a pile of sand moved towards the man with the gun. He readied it higher up to shoot Nick to prove his point.

Within a matter of seconds the creature came out of the sand and grabbed the man who screamed. Stephen grabbed Taylor in an attempt to shield her from the shock of watching a man get pulled into the sand. The only thing I could hear was the man screaming for Nick to help him as he began to gather the items he had thrown to him prior. He moved them away from the man before he grabbed the gun, shooting around the man to attract more creatures.

Stephen moved the girl closer to me. "Stay here." he said before he ran off towards Nick and the man.

"Stephen, you should stay here." I said in an attempt to talk sense into him.

Stephen ran over to the man who was half out of the sand and questioned him on who sent him. Within moments the man was dragged the rest of the way into the sand and was gone. Taylor let out a startled scream next to me. I grabbed her hand hoping I wouldn't do the same.

Nick and Steve slowly and quietly grabbed the rest of the items and slowly walked back over to us. Neither of them spoke as we followed Nick and the detector to our hopeful way out of here.

My mind began to swirl with more questions. Who was that man? How did Nick know this man? Obviously something sinister was happening with my new workplace and the man named Lester, my new boss. Nick and Stephen both seemed hell bent that someone had sent these soldiers out here into the anomaly before us, the traitor he mentioned earlier. But why? I knew that asking right now was not the time, nor the place. So for the time being, I tried to ignore my brain.

The rocks they ended abruptly, leaving nothing but dangerous sand. The detector was still beeping, signalling the anomaly was still open and close. With reluctance we all continued onto the sand. "We've got no choice, but if we tread lightly, we should be okay." Nick said with little comfort as we walked along the sand. How many creatures were below us was unknown.

I thought back to the class we had about the permian era, specifically the scorpions and how Stephen helped me study. I remembered how much I hated that lesson and learning about the types of creatures that lived in that era. My heart leapt a little when I remembered the scorpion magnet on my fridge. I looked up to Stephen and Taylor the two in front of me as we hiked up a sandy ridge.

"According to this, the anomaly should be just over the crest of the dune." Nick said from behind us, the detector still beeping.

Just then Taylor lost her footing in the sand and fell. All of us froze and looked around to see if any lumps of sand were heading our way. A couple of lumps still circled in the distance, seeming to not notice the sudden tremor. Just when we thought we were in the clear, Stephen let out a scream as he fell waist deep in the sand.

"No!" I screamed as I rushed over to Stephen, Nick joined my side. Neither of us caring about treading lightly.

"Take my hand." Nick said as we both reached out to his hands, he gladly obeyed. "Hold on!" We struggled to keep a good grip, the sweat still dripping from our pores. Nick and I both attempted to pull him out of the sand.

"It's got me." Stephen said softly. Nick and I tugged harder, within seconds Stephen was pulled the rest of the way into the sand.

Both Nick and I fell to our knees and began digging in the area he had been sucked into. I barely registered Taylor screaming behind me as we threw back as much sand as possible.

"No! Let him go!" Taylor began screaming jumping around us.

"Taylor, stand still! Stand still!" Nick said as I continued to dig for Stephen.

To the side of us the creature bursted from the sand with Stephen still in it's grasp. Nick grabbed my arm and Taylor's telling us to back up and stay as still as possible. On our other side another creature bursted from the sand, scuttling towards the other creature. We sat there together in awe as the creatures began battling for their meal.

The sudden danger too great the creature dropped Stephen as it attacked the smaller scorpion. The moment Stephen was on his feet he ran towards us.

"Take her!" Nick said as we stood, shoving Taylor towards Stephen. Nick turned and ran back to where Stephen had been sucked into the sand to retrieve the bags we had left behind in our panic.

"Leave the bag!" Stephen yelled as I took Taylor's hand in mine. Stephen ran up the dune. Taylor and I hesitated for a moment as we watched Nick dig the gun out from the bag.

"Ditch the bag Nick!" I yelled before turning around with Taylor. We both ran after Stephen up the dune.

When we made it to the top of the dune, Stephen as he brought over a shell of one of the creatures. "What are you doing?" Taylor asked as he dragged the shell over to a part of the dune. "Look!" She said pointing in the direction of the other side of the dune. I looked over to see the anomaly we had been tracking at the bottom of the dune. The fire of a gun caused me to turn around as I watched Nick shoot at the larger scorpion after it had incapacitated the smaller one and turned to him.

"Skyla! Get in." Stephen screamed grabbing my attention. I looked over as Taylor settled herself in the shell, Stephen held it in place so it didn't go down the dune.

I looked back to Nick, knowing we couldn't leave him behind. I watched as he discarded the gun and grabbed something from the bag before he ran up the dune to meet us. The smaller creature came out of it's daze and attacked the larger one, distracting it from Nick getting away. Nick, Stephen and I got onto the shell. "Hold on." Stephen yelled as we went down the dune on the shell. Once we hit the bottom we got up from the shell and ran as fast as we could towards the anomaly. Stephen and I grabbing a hold of each of Taylor's hands, Nick right next to me.

"Are we going home now?" Taylor asked as we reached the anomaly.

"We're going somewhere." Nick said with hope as we ran through the anomaly.


	22. Home

We were greeted on the other side of the anomaly with cooler temperatures, trees and foliage. I smiled just thankful that we were out of the sandy hell. "Well we're not home, but at least there's no sand." Nick said as we walked through the forest trying to gather where we were, let alone what time period.

"I, for one, am thankful for that." I said I shivered as my body adjusted to the sudden drop in temperature and oxygen flow.

"Any guesses where we are?" Stephen asked.

"Hopefully where there's not something chasing us." I muttered to myself.

"Well, the air's normal, woodland looks familiar, so I guess it's gotta be within the last few thousand years." Nick said.

"So obviously we're somewhere in the Meghalayan era. Which means anything from early humans to present time -" I said stopping when I realized everyone was staring at me. Nick and Stephen obviously a little impressed, Taylor just looking confused. "Sorry. Nerd moment."

They all turned around and we continued walking through the forest. "Hey, look!" Taylor shouted and ran over to a campsite. All of us looked around to see what we could find.

"Middle Palaeolithic." Nick said as we walked around the came sight. "We got to get away from here."

"You think?" I asked as a caveman came back to the sight behind Nick. All of us stood on edge waiting for the man to attack. Before the caveman could react Nick punched him in the face, the impact sending the man to the ground. We looked at the caveman, now rendered unconscious on the ground. His skinned garment around his waist moved to the side, showing modern day undergarments,

"That don't look right." Stephen said pointing to the mans undergarments.

"Think I just punched an actor." Nick said still with his fists up.

"Yeah. But that means we're home." I said with a smile.

"Cutter." a familiar voice said as Connor and Abby came around a couple of bushes in the dense forest. "Cutter…"

"I knew you'd make it back." Abby said matching my grin.

"It is really, really good to see you guys." Connor said looking at all of us.

Stephen shifted his weight from one side to the other. "Yeah, a few basic plants, and some bugs." Stephen repeated Connors words to us before we originally went into the anomaly.

Connor's face fell. "What?" He asked looking like a scolded child. Nick lowered his arms realizing once again we were home. I laughed, not only happy to be home but the general team dynamic and walked over to the two who just arrived.

"You guys got any water?" I asked, now that we knew we were safe a sudden thirst hitting me. Nick and Stephen let out a breathy laugh as we walked out of the forest.

The anomaly had landed us right in the middle of a park. We walked along the road as Abby and Connor asked questions as we went, Taylor volunteering all the answers to what had happened. Nick and Stephen walked in front of me as we continued on.

"These are the highest stakes we've ever played for." Nick said loud enough for Stephen and I to hear him. He casually put his arms behind his back, revealing the camera scope from one of the soldiers. "If we say a word now, we could lose everything."

"So do nothing?" Stephen muttered.

"We just have to be sure." Nick said as we walked forward.

A man walked up to us wearing a suit and tie, not something you would wear to a park like this. "Welcome to the Lost World Adventure Park. Complete with cavemen, concrete dinosaurs and water slides." Stephen looked at the man and walked off. The man looked from Stephen, to me then back to Nick. "You know, I never thought I'd say this, but given a choice between you and Connor, I'm very glad to have you back." Something clicked in my mind, this must be infamous Lester everyone had been talking about. "Of course when we picked up the anomaly we had no idea what might come through it. You are lucky we dont shoot on sight."

He looked over to me. "You must be Skyla Lock." He said holding out a hand. I grasped his in mine. "James Lester." He gave me a half assed smile before letting my hand go and turning back to Nick. "Well, I better go and soothe your caveman. Let's hope the Palaeolithic was short on ambulance-chasing lawyers." He walked off to where Stephen had gone.

"What a charmer." I said to Nick under my breath, earning a smirk. Abby, Connor, and Taylor walked past us in the direction where Lester and Stephen had gone. Nick and I walked slowly behind the others, just happy that we could breathe the oxygen rich atmosphere.

"You know I have a million questions right?" I said looking up to Nick.

"I wouldn't have gotten you hired otherwise." he said with a smirk as we walked to the cars.


	23. Questions

Nick took Taylor back to her home and the rest of us went back to the ARC. I mulled over everything that happened in the last couple of hours during the ride. I had gone back in time to an era devoid of humans and modern creatures. I had learned that my boyfriend had an affair with none other than Helen Cutter. And there was talk of a traitor amongst us. All of this in one days time, half a day really.

When we reached the ARC we unloaded the vehicles and processed all the information we had gathered from this trip, with the exception of the soldiers and the traitor. Stephen gave me a look as to not say anything to Connor or Abby at that moment and to keep it between us. I gave him a slight nod in understanding.

"I'm going to head home, want a ride?" Stephen asked as I sat on the benches near him.

"Is it always like this?" I asked as he shut the door to his locker putting on a new shirt. I made a mental note to bring in extra clothes to put in my locker tomorrow.

He sat down next to me on the bench. "Not really, but for the most part. It's always something different in it's own unique way. Never a dull moment." He said as he moved a stray piece of hair from my face.

I looked into his crystal blue eyes. "I almost lost you today. For a brief moment I did."

"Having second thoughts about being on the team?" He asked with a bemused look.

I shook my head. "Not at all." I looked down to my hands calculating my words. "It's just - we have a lot to talk about. With what you told me earlier and everything else. I know it was a long time ago, but with Helen being back- I - I just - I don't trust her Stephen."

He nodded his head thinking about my words. "Do you trust me?" He asked.

"Of course I do, Stephen. But Helen, she was married to Nick and cheated on him with you. I'm not saying you're not at fault but she did it knowingly. It seems vindictive." I said he again nodded. "Look we don't have to talk about it anymore today. But we need to talk soon about us."

Once again he gave me a bemused look but nodded in understanding. "Do you want to come over tonight?" he asked. I nodded before he kissed my forehead and stood.

"I'm going to stay behind for a moment and talk to Nick about today. Not about the affair, but just about the general experience. I'll catch a cab and see you in an hour or so. Alright?" I said. He nodded once more and kissed my head before walking out of the locker room.

Now I just had to wait for Nick to come back to the ARC so I could ask him the questions that were plaguing my mind. I walked out of the locker room and explored the ARC a little more. I found where there were bunks for people to sleep, the medical supply closet and clinic, labs and various offices. I came to a stop at Nicks and walked in, feeling that waiting for him in there would be best.

Ten minutes passed before the door opened again and a tired Nick waltzed in. "Skyla. I thought you had left with Stephen." he said as he walked over to his desk placing his box of items down from his truck.

"Thought I'd stay behind as ask you those questions." I said with a smirk.

He smiled in response before sitting down. "Ask away."

"What's going on here Nick? What is this about a traitor?" I asked him.

His eyes grew a little at my question and he leaned in a little more. "Remember this morning when we got here and the signal got messed up with the equipment?" He whispered to me. I nodded remembering sitting with him and Connor monitoring the system. "We think whoever hacked into Connor's technology this morning is the traitor."

"And you dont think it's Lester?" I asked.

Nick shook his head. "No, it makes no sense for him." He paused considering what he should tell me. "The man in the desert, he was behind it. I know it."

"What makes you think that?"

"I saw him the day that the mercreature anomaly happened. I saw him in the area where you and Abby were kept." He whispered to me. A small chill ran up my spine at the thought.

After a couple of moments of processing the information I shook my head. "So was he the ring leader or a pawn?"

Nick smiled remembering how sharp I was. "I think he was just a pawn. Lester is here helping us, as much as all of us hate to admit it, he's a good guy. No, it's someone else."

My eyes darkened a little remembering all of the talk of Helen today. "Do you think it could be Helen?" I debated asking the question, not knowing anything really of what was going on but for some reason I couldn't shake the feeling she was involved.

Nick sat back in his seat and pondered the thought. His eyes darkened a little as he did so. "It could be. She's done nothing but play games with us since she came back. But it as much as I want to say it is her, there's a strong possibility it's not."

I sat there feeling like I shouldn't be talking behind Stephen's back but I needed to ask Nick. "Nick, I know about Stephen and Helen." He stood a little straighter. "He told me earlier today. I trust him Nick, but if she's back in the picture- I guess-" I began losing my words my mind trying to back track what I wanted to ask him. "I don't trust her Nick. Regardless if she is the traitor or not. What they did years ago, it's revolting."

Nick held up his hand. "Skyla, Stephen loves you whether or not he will admit it. This is the longest I've seen him with someone and been this happy. I forgave him for what he did, it took a couple of weeks but I did. It still hurts but there's nothing I can really do about it, especially when it was so long ago. It might take time for you to process everything that's been literally thrown at you. But it will all be well. I promise." He smiled as he placed his hand on mine on the desk. His smile warmed my worried heart.

"Thank's Nick." I said. He nodded before he took his hand back.

"Go home Skyla. It's been a long day for all of us." He said. I nodded suddenly feeling how tired I was.

I slowly rose from my chair and walked towards the door. "Good night Nick. Thanks for the job." I said looking back to him. He gave one more nod as I walked through the door.


	24. Mammoth

The next morning I woke up to Stephen's warm body close to mine. When I opened my eyes and saw he was already awake watching me sleep, a small smile crept on my lips. His lips slowly curled at my reaction.

"Good Morning." He said as he kissed my lips gently.

"Morning." I said when we parted. We laid there for a moment just staring at one another. "Your bed is so much more comfortable than mine." He let out a small chuckle and brushed some hair from my face. Even though we spent most night's at my place, we had spent a fair share of time at his. Both of us housing clothes and other items at each place.

I stared at his face, memorizing every detail. The way his blue eyes increased in color when he was happy. The creases around his mouth and how they still stayed behind even when his smile faltered. The color of his tan skin bringing the blue of his eyes more.

My mind wandered from his physical appearance and I began wondering what was going through his mind so many years ago with Helen. Obviously we were all a lot younger. Hell, I was still in high school. He said that they were going to call it off and then she disappeared. I wondered what would have gone down if she hadn't.

Before I could say anything both of our mobiles went off. With a frown we both reached over to our respective sides and grabbed our mobiles. It was a message from Nick asking to meet in the locker rooms in an hour. With a groan Stephen got out of bed and walked to his kitchen, turning on the stove to heat up water for our tea.

Reluctantly I followed him into the room and pulled out some mugs.

"Stephen." I asked grabbing his attention as I placed the mugs on the counter. "I know this question sounds like a trap, but I have to ask. Especially after the events of yesterday." I paused for a moment not believing the words that were about to leave my mouth. "Do-Do you love me?" I asked looking up to him. It was childish to ask. When he asked me that question a couple days ago I answered with a yes. He said he did too. I already had the answer, but he never outright said it. It was something that bugged me for some reason.

He stood there in the kitchen with his hand on his hip looking right at me. He opened his mouth to say something when his mobile went off again, someone calling him this time. He let out a sigh before he walked over to it to answer it.

"Hello?" He answered the mobile and looked back to me with sorrowful eyes. "He wants us to meet him sooner? A half an hour? Bloody hell it'll take that long just to get there. Fine." He hung up the mobile before he could answer my questions I put the mugs away.

"It's fine. Forget I asked." I said secretly thankful for the interruption.

We walked into the ARC and grabbed coffee in the lunchroom before heading over to the locker room. The growing tension between us was making me feel uneasy. Abby and Connor were in the locker room already, Abby lifting weights to pass the time.

"-I'll get him back, I promise. Hey." Connor said as we approached them with our mugs of coffee.

"So, what's the secret meeting all about?" Stephen asked sipping his mug.

"I don't know. It's a secret, isn't it?" Connor said, adjusting his stance as he held a weight Abby was using. .

"You want to put that down?" Stephen said glancing at the weight.

Abby walked over to her locker, squeezing my arm as a silent hello. I smiled to her as she passed by. "He just told us to meet him here." she said.

"I wanted it to be somewhere we wouldn't be overheard." Nicks voice came through the locker room. We glanced over as he appeared from the other side of the room.

We all looked sheepish as Nick walked over to the music device, turning it up. "Wow, advanced paranoia or what?" Connor said at the action looking up at Stephen. I smiled into my mug as I took another sip.

"A necessary precaution. Come here. All of you." Nick said, letting Connor know that he had heard him. We all gathered near him anxiously awaiting the reason behind our secret meeting. "There is someone working against us, someone who has access to the detector and probably the same person who stole the headset in the Silurian."

"Wait, someone stole the headset?" I asked. Without missing a beat Nick nodded, ignoring the fact that I had interrupted him.

"Someone?" Stephen asked. I could feel the small amount of masculine tension from before in the Silurian grow. He was so dead set on thinking it was Lester, not even considering it could be someone else. Last night when I had arrived to Stephens flat, I decided not to tell him about what Nick and I had talked about.I didn't want him to think I was working against him, or get into a fight about it. The man was as stubborn now as he was back in the day.

"Okay, I know that we all have our own ideas about who that might be, but this time we have to find out for sure." Nick said as calmly as possible. He glanced at me for a moment, remembering our talk.

"Okay, so how are we gonna do that?" Stephen asked as an alarm sounded through the speaker system alerting us of an anomaly.

All of us looked up the the alarms and rolled our eyes at the perfect timing. When we walked out onto the floor to see where the anomaly was and what gear we might need, Lester's voice boomed through the room.

"My worst nightmare, in one sentence." he said.

 _Well, that can't be good._ I thought when we approached the computers. We looked at the readings and data being streamed onto the screens, a mammoth was walking around on the road as if it owned the place.

"Mammoth on the M25!" Jenny said on the walkway as Lester brushed past her.

"Columbian mammoth." Nick corrected.

"The flavour is immaterial." Lester said as he came down the ramp, Jenny and another man in a suit following closely behind.

"The Colombian was a hairless species, sir." the other man in a suit said.

"Who is that?" I asked Stephen as the others continued talking.

"That's Leek. Lesters right hand man." Stephen whispered to me. I nodded in response.

"It's on a motorway in broad daylight." Lester continued as Stephen, Nick and I walked over the the back of Nick's truck looking at the weapons that were apparently always in the back.

Nick picked up one of the guns and looked at the rest of the items we had. "It's not gonna be enough." he said.

"Nope. Gonna need a bigger gun." Stephen said before he walked off.

"Alright." Nick said.

I followed him as we walked to though the ARC getting a couple other supplies before going back to his truck. I was shadowing him, getting an idea of how much prep work we would do before going to an anomaly. I sat in the back behind Nick, Connor next to me and Abby in the front. We pulled out of the ARC and into the parking lot and pulled up next to Stephen and his car.

"I left the gun inside, I'll catch you up, yeah?" Stephen said.

"You want me to come with you?" I asked knowing the team liked to partner up whenever possible.

"No, it's fine. I'll be quick." He said. Nick glanced in the side mirror back to me giving me a look that I wanted to give Stephen. With a nod we drove off to the M25.


	25. Helen

I couldn't help but think that Stephen was acting funny as we drove along. It was odd that he didn't want any assistance or help. I panicked for a brief moment when I thought maybe he was the traitor. _He wouldn't do that though, no, not to Nick and the rest of us. Right?_ I shook my head of the thought. Whomever this person was they were good if they had us thinking it could very well be, well one of us.

We pulled up to the scene on the M25, emergency personnel surrounding the area with reporters. Jenny greeted us as we slowed the truck to a crawl. "Hi, I've shut down the motorway at the next two junctions, kept the camera crews out, shut down the mobile networks, there's a no fly zone in place and the eyewitnesses have been debriefed." Jenny said as she walked next to the slowly creeping truck.

Honestly I was surprised at her tenacity. I hadn't realized how much work went into being the PR spokesperson for the ARC. She was excellent at it, considering she had left the ARC shortly before us. If Claudia was anything like Jenny, besides appearance, I could see why Nick fancied her.

Once we were past the police tap Nick stopped the car. "And all that with your skirt tucked into your tights. Well done." Nick said, I had to force myself not to smack him at the comment.

"I'm not going to look. Mammoth. Go." Jenny said as Nick drove off into the direction where the mammoth was. .

The M25 was void of any humans, the only thing left was cars and the occasional debris of paper. It looked like something from an apocalyptic horror movie. The trumpet of the mammoth get louder and louder as we approached, with no other sounds it seemed to echo. Nick stopped the truck when we could see the mammoth in the distance. All of us collectively got out of the truck and gasped.

"Oh, you beauty." Nick whispered in astonishment. The mammoth walked around tossing cars left and right if they were in its path life they weighed nothing. "It's the biggest elephant that ever lived. There were still running around North America until about eight thousand years ago."

A large goofy smile spread across my face, everything that was in my mind was gone. I felt like I was watching this on film in Nick's class as he was giving a lecture. It was truly magnificent.

"It's a herd animal." Abby pointed out. "Can't smell its mates."

All of us stood gawking at the creature when a car horn sounded with pleas for help. The moment of awe suddenly turned into a rescue mission. All of us began to get to work as the person in the car continued to honk the horn alerting the mammoth at their presence. Abby and I ran to the back of the truck to see what we could use.

Abby pulled out the gun that we deemed too small before. "We use tranquilizers and not actual firepower right?" I asked suddenly concerned for the animal.

"Of course. Only firepower in an extreme emergency or with future predators." She said as she loaded the gun. Before I could inquire about what she meant by future predators she took off around the truck as Connor ran back the way we drove in.

Nick saw that Abby had the gun. "No, we're gonna need more firepower. Jeez, where the hell is Stephen?"

I pulled out my mobile to call him, it went straight to voicemail. "He's not answering. Hopefully that means he's on his way."

Connor ran back up next to us, looking at the highway sign that now said 'Shut up!' instead of 'Severe delays'.

"Tactful." Nick said but it did the job, the person had stopped honking the horn.

"That's what you said, isn't it?" Connor asked.

"It did the job, that's what counts. Hopefully we did it in time not to aggravate the mammoth further." I said as we watched the mammoth begin to calm down.

"I cant wait any longer." Nick said, referring waiting for Stephen.

"What are you going to do?" Connor said.

"This." Was the only thing Nick said as he ran off towards the people in the car. He snaked his way between the other cars, hiding when necessary for cover.

"Come on." Abby said before she followed after Nick.

Connor and I stood there watching the others thinking they were crazy as they ran towards the aggravated mammoth. "He do that often?" I asked as we both reluctantly started moving forward.

"You get used to it." he said before we split up, using the cars as the other had as cover.

I was the slowest of the bunch, watching as Connor and Abby ran off to the side with a boy from the vehicle. Honestly I was scared. I had no idea what I was doing or how to react with the large extinct creature in front of us. I watched as Abby ran off leaving Connor and the boy alone, speeding off in another vehicle. I looked over to the mammoth as it slowly approached where I was hiding. I could feel my mouth slowly open as I watched it pass by, shoving the car next to me a little to the side. It dwarfed a modern day elephant. As I watched it walk away I snapped my attention back to Nick hoping he would give me a sign of what to do.

"Distract it." I heard Nick say as he got out of the vehicle. I looked around wondering how you distract something of that size. I noticed Connor and the boy standing there watching the mammoth. I looked over to the mammoth before I ran over to where they stood. I could hear the woman stuck in the vehicle with Nick begin screaming at the aggravated mammoth.

"Connor, any ideas?" I asked breathlessly.

"No-" He began but something caught his eye. "Get to the semi." He said we all ran over to the semi a little ways away from the mammoth. Connor opened the door helping the kid in first before going in himself. I jumped in after they were settled closing the car door.

"We've got to find the keys." I said as we all began searching the cab.

We searched frantically for the keys when the sudden sound of a horn was heard. I looked over to see the boy had honked the horn of the semi, jumping back when Connor and I noticed what he had done. We looked out to the mammoth to see if that had done the trick. It had stopped attacking the car that others were in.

"Keep pressing it. It's working." Connor said with a smile. The kid continued to press on the horn distracting the Mammoth. The kid began pressing other various buttons in the cab, entertained at the different noises they were emitting. I diverted my attention back to the Mammoth that was now behind us, confused at where the noise of the horn had come from.

"Connor pull up the ramp!" Nick yelled, I looked in the side mirror to see running towards the truck we were in.

"Which button's the ramp, mate?" Connor asked the kid. He shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Just press them all." I said as we all began pressing buttons hoping that one of them was the ramp.

"Connor pull up the ramp!" Nick repeated as we felt the truck move, presumably the mammoth entering.

"Press every button you can see." Connor said as we all frantically pressed the buttons.

I looked in the mirror again, seeing a shadow cast on the ground, moving towards the truck. "Wait, I think we hit it." I said grabbing their hands. The truck began to move more and the trumpeting from the mammoth was directly behind us, confirming that it was trapped.

"We did it!" Connor yelled in excitement. "High five." He held his hand up for the kid to hit it.

"Yeah!" The kid said as he smacked Connors hand. Connor then held his hand closer to me to hit it.

With a relieved laugh I hit it. "Let's go get you back to your mum, yeah?" I said as we got out of the truck.

Nick walked over to us, Abby right behind him. "Nice work guys." Abby said as the truck continued to move.

"Where's his mum?" I questioned.

"She went down to Jenny to get checked out." Nick said with a smile.

"Well, let's go get you to her then right?" Connor said as the kid crawled onto his back for a piggy back ride.

We all piled into the truck and sped off towards the way we came. A job well done. The kid, Jake, was asking us all sorts of questions about the elephant that we had just encountered. Knowing what we knew, we didn't correct him.

We arrived back to the scene where the emergency personnel, reporters and Jake's mum were. Nick stopped the truck before the checkpoint. I turned around in my seat still laughing at Jake's questions when I noticed why Nick had stopped. I barely registered as Connor and Jake got out of the vehicle.

In front of us Stephen stood next to his car with Helen. Nick and I slowly got out of the car and approached the two. I looked to Helen then over to Stephen. The realization dawned on me. _He had lied to us before when he said he would catch up to us. There was no other explanation to why she was now standing there with him._

All of us cautiously walked up to the duo, letting Nick take the lead. I stood with my hands on my hips, restraining myself from walking up closer to Stephen and mouthing off.

"So, where the hell have you been? We could have been killed?" Nick said to Stephen, ignoring Helen's form leaning against Stephens car watching him like prey.

"You weren't." Stephen said casually. I scoffed at his response as he played off not showing up was nothing.

"Not this time." Nick pointed out.

"You just going to ignore me, Nick?" Helen said as she adjusted her body on the car and began to eat an apple.

"She with you?" Nick asked, ignoring her.

"Not in the way you think." Stephen said looking over to me then back to Nick.

"You've been seeing her?" Nick asked.

Once again Stephen looked over to me before he answered shaking his head no. "Yeah, a couple of times, but, this is important."

I stared at Stephen, he had not only lied to all of us this morning, but he had lied to me yesterday when I asked the same question. I shook my head, this couldn't be happening. "You're fired." Nick muttered out barely able to hear what he had said and walked past Stephen.

Stephen gave me one last look before he walked after Nick. "She can help us." Stephen pleaded. Abby walked over to me and squeezed my shoulder.

"If you think Helen's here to help, then you're madder than she is." Nick said as he continued on walking. Stephen jogged to catch up, pleading for him to listen. I looked over to Helen who smiled at me as she continued to eat her apple like this was the most entertaining thing she had ever seen. I jerked forward towards her before Abby stopped me by standing in front of me.

"Are you still in love with her? Is that why you trust her? What about Skyla?" Nick said catching my attention when I heard my name. I looked over to the two who were now under the bridge standing face to face. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Helen shift towards the two waiting for an answer. "You know what? I don't care. Do what you want."

Helen walked over to Stephen as he turned around with sorrowful eyes. I couldn't hear what they were saying anymore. I looked to Abby, who was still in front of me. She gave me one nod as we walked back to the truck we had just gotten out of. Connor walked passed the awkward duo with Jake on his back so he could be reunited with his mother. Abby and I got into the truck and drove past them. As we drove I looked out the window to Stephen, the look in his eyes was hurt and sorrow but nothing compared to mine.

Abby and I drove through the rest of the crowd until we were back on the road back to the ARC. We didn't pay any mind about leaving Nick and Connor. Knowing they needed to deal with the mammoth in the semi and could easily catch a ride with someone back to the ARC. I continued to stare out the window watching the horizon pass by. Hannah was right all those weeks ago. Stephen had lied to me, at least twice in the last couple of days. Not about small stuff either. How would I be certain about anything else about our relationship?

Abby's mobile rang a couple rings before she picked it up. I ignored what she was saying as I questioned everything from the last couple months. How could you wake up next to someone in such peace just for a couple hours later for it to go to complete shit?

"That was Connor." Abby said catching my attention. "They're going to bring the mammoth back to the ARC until we can find an anomaly within it's time." I looked over to her as she gave me a sorrowful look. I nodded letting her know that I understood her. "I take it that you didn't know Stephen had been seeing Helen?"

I shook my head and sat up straighter in the seat. "I asked him that same question in the Silurian yesterday. He told me that he hadn't been alone with her since she graced the world with her presence again. He told me this after he told me about the affair they had." I admitted a small tear fell down my cheek. I wiped it away before she noticed.

"Honestly, I don't think any of us knew. I know that doesn't help but it's something." She said as she focused back on the road.

"Do you think there is any possibility that Stephen is the traitor?" I asked my thoughts from before, this time less certain that I was thinking crazy.

She shook her head. "I don't think so, but at this point I don't know."


	26. The Fall of Nick and Stephen

We arrived back at the ARC and immediately began to prepare things for the mammoths soon arrival.

"Skyla." Lester said as I stood next to Abby next to the anomaly detecting computers. I looked over to him as he nodded his head for me to come over. "Let me show you where your desk is and the papers you need to sign." I looked back to Abby, who gave me a smile, before I walked over to Lester.

We walked up the ramp as he showed me where his office was and introduced me to various people. I would probably forget all their names within the hour. We passed by Nick's office and came to a stop to the one next to it. "Right so, this is your office." He motioned with his hand for me to open the door and go in. "I trust that you have acquainted yourself with the team, considering Stephen is your darling and Nick was your professor. Am I correct?"

I started to realize as he was talking that Nick was right the day before. Lester wasn't a bad man per se, he was just very no nonsense bureaucratic man. Something the rest of us were not which typically would cause a fuss. "That is correct." I said as I stepped into my office. It was smaller than Nick's but considering I wasn't expecting my own office-

"You'll be sharing this space with Abby when she is not in the labs." He muttered out. I looked over to him with a nod, noting the other desk across the room.

"I honestly wasn't expecting an office let alone a desk, so thank you." I said with a ghost of a smile.

He looked at me in a curious way before he spoke. "The papers I need you to fill out are on your desk. Please get them back to me as soon as possible." He gave me what some would call a smirk, but not quite. No it was more of an upturned lip in an attempt to give a friendly smile.

"Thank you, Lester, for letting me on the team." I said. He gave a curt nod and left me alone in my office.

I sat down at my desk, surprised at how comfortable the chair was and began signing paper after paper. It was mainly papers that you would sign at any job including banking information for payroll. I stopped for a moment when I noticed that some of them were also government documents that I would need to sign, including the Official Secrets Act. My mind wandered back to when Stephen told me he had signed the act and that was why he wasn't able to tell me. I let out a half laugh as I straightened the papers out on my desk, completing my task. At least that was one thing he hadn't lied to me about.

I walked out of the office and went to Lester's office to deliver the papers. Noting he was absent from his desk, I placed them on his keyboard so he wouldn't miss them. I noticed Abby below feeding the mammoth apples. It's trunk coming through a small section of the wall that was opened. I smiled as she giggled when trunk tickled her fingers. I continued on walking, wondering if Nick was back yet. As soon as I thought it he appeared as he walked up the ramp.

"Hey." I said as he approached. He looked down to me before he pulled me into an unexpected hug.

"I'm sorry you were brought into this mess." he muttered as he loosened the hug and stepped back. I nodded my head unable to say anything.

"What can I help out with?" I asked taking control of the conversation, vering it away from the topic of Stephen and Helen. He smiled down at me as he led me into his office.

"Look for anything about the Columbian Mammoths in your grandfather's journal." He said as he handed my the journal, stashed away in one of the desk drawers. I smiled when he handed it back to me, remembering a couple weeks ago I had no idea it even existed.

"Did you read much more into it?" I asked as I opened it, thumbing though some of the pages as he grabbed some films and books off his shelves.

He shook his head before he gestured for me to follow him back down the ramp into one of the labs so he could look at the film. "No more than what we did the other night. Since you gave it to me to look at, I haven't had much time." He explained. I nodded and sat in one of the chairs that faced the ARC's center. I noticed Abby still feeding the mammoth, completely in her element.

I focused my attention to the journal, flipping through pages to see if the world mammoth stood out. It wasn't a very thick journal but it was littered with information on the anomalies and the worlds they connected us with. I let out a laugh when there was a particular page on dodo birds and how incredibly curious they were. I looked up for a moment thinking about asking Nick if they had seen dodo's yet and noticed Stephen was out there talking to Abby. I froze for a moment wondering what he was doing. Not only here since Nick had fired him but in general. What was going on in his head to think that Helen was right in anything? I shook my head looking back to the journal, trying to focus on my task. I turned in the chair to see Nick still standing behind me looking at the film he had collected on the mammoths.

"We don't have the right to decide what people should know." Stephen's voice filled the small lab. I shut my eyes and turned back to the table, listening to what he had to say while I acted like i was still reading.

"Whatever argument you may have had lost any credibility when you hooked up with Helen." Nick responded. I was surprised on how calm the answer had come from Nick. I moved my chair again so I could see Nick and part of Stephen.

"She predicted this." Stephen muttered under his breath. He walked closer to Nick. "Said you wouldn't listen." I then turned all the way around in the chair to look at the two.

"Then why did you lie about it? Why not tell us the truth in the beginning?" I asked betraying my want to ignore him.

Stephen looked over to me with his puppy dog eyes and shook his head. "I couldn't bring you into it because you didn't know about what I did." Stephen said.

It was my turn to shake my head. "No, I don't believe you. You could have told Nick or Abby, even Connor."

"I couldn't tell Abby or Connor because they will do whatever Nick says." Stephen turned back to Nick. "And she said you were too arrogant to face reality."

Nick looked up to Stephen now getting into the conversation. "Reality? You have no idea what that word means any more. You have Skyla, right there -" He pointed over to me. "The woman who loves you and you lied to her. You lied to all of us. The world changed, Stephen. We can't protect anyone until we know why the anomalies appear and what they mean."

"It's always your way or nothing." Stephen countered.

"That works for me." Nick said as he stood up straighter and turned to leave the room.

"No wonder she turned to me." Stephen said stopping Nick in his tracks. I stood up from my chair. Partly because I didn't want to be in here alone with him, knowing it would escalate. The other part because I was in complete disbelief about what was happening.

Nick turned around back into the room, walked closer to Stephen and then punched him in the face. I covered my mouth to keep from gasping aloud.

"That's made everything simple." Stephen said sarcastically as he stood up. He looked over to me again with the puppy eyes. My hand fell from my face before I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head not knowing what to say or do. Nick left the lab leaving Stephen and I standing there just staring at each other.

"Wouldn't you have wanted to know what I was doing at work? Why I got that gash in my leg that day?" Stephen said breaking the silence.

I shook my head. "Stephen. It's not that simple."

"But it is!" he exclaimed making me jump a little at the outburst.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts before I spoke. "Yes, I would have wanted to know. I begged you to tell me for weeks. But Stephen, with what I know now-" I paused thinking of how to put it. "I wouldn't have let you leave. Or I would have followed you and I could've been killed. It's not that simple, love. If this gets out to the public we won't be able to do our jobs. People will get killed wanting to see something from the past. It's better this way."

Stephen shook his head. "You've been here for not even 48 hours and he's already filled you with this nonsense." He started to walk out the door.

"Stephen." I said as he walked out of the room leaving me alone. I looked over to my side and saw Abby standing there watching everything through the glass. I walked out of the room and over to her. "Where did the others go?" She nodded her head. Connor and Nick were working on the computer. She grabbed my arm before I could walk over to them and tugged me to follow her.

We walked into our office and closed the door. "They're trying to figure out who has access to the detector." She paused for a moment before she continued. "I'm sorry for that." She gestured her head towards the general direction of where the lab was on the other floor.I gave her an appreciative smile as my response.

"What can I do while you guys figure out who's behind this? I can stay here and see if anyone starts acting suspicious and let you know." I offered thinking that if Stephen was the traitor I wouldn't, couldn't be there for that.

She nodded as she mulled the plan over. "I think that's perfect."


	27. Future Predator

It was only an hour later when Abby, Connor and Nick rode off. They set up the computer to send out a fake anomaly to the person who had hacked the system, and only that person. Making the traitor the only one who knew about the fake anomaly. I was pretty proud of my new team and how they managed to come up with this plan in a short amount of time. As Abby and I had talked about earlier, I was to remain at the ARC and see if anyone was acting suspicious.

I looked down at my mobile, nothing really had happened on this end that I had noticed. The signal should have been sent off a couple minutes ago. I paced around my office for a moment, anxious about the plan. Thoughts of an ambush came to my mind and made me shutter. However I was sure they could handle themselves. I had casually walked all around the ARC previously, watching people to see if they knew about the plan, or looked suspicious. So far it had been nothing.

I felt my mobile buzz in my hand. looked down at it anxiously waiting to see what it said. It was a text from Abby, _Leek is the traitor. Be careful!_ I let out a sigh of relief when I read the message over and over again. Stephen wasn't the traitor.

"Hello?" Lester's voice echoed through the empty ARC. My curiosity peaked when I realized how quiet it had become. I walked out of my office and over to Lester's.

"Lester?" I asked as I approached him, happy that he was also not the traitor. I wasn't comfortable enough to tell him the news but at least I could trust him just that much more.

"Ah, Skyla, was that you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"That noise just a moment ago." he said folding his arms.

"No, I was in my office until I heard your hello and came out." I said looking at him now feeling a little uneasy. I looked down to the floor below, it looked completely abandoned.

A clink alerted both of us coming from the empty floor below. We looked to each other before we began walking down the ramp, a light above the ramp swayed to and fro. Something crashed from behind us both of us turning at the noise. Neither of us moved for a moment. I glanced over to him concerned at what was happening.

"I don't think we are the only ones here." I whispered to him. He nodded his head as we continued to the end of the ramp seeing a white van.

"When did this get here?" he asked.

"An hour ago or so, I think." I responded as we inspected the van, the back doors now hung open. We turned around and started walking to the middle of the main room, small beeping noises coming from Connor's computers.

"Anybody there?" Lester shouted. I started to begin to think shouting or making too much noise was not the best idea.

We slowly walked around, looking around corners to see if anyone else was here. I glanced over to Connor's computers, the screens were going in and out. Before I could say anything they froze on Leeks face. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and ignored it, choosing to watch the screen.

"You're on your own. There's no one there but you two." Leek's voice echoed off the walls. That's when I realized he could see us, a live feed into the ARC. The blood ran from my face when I realized, the others hadn't walked into an ambush, the ambush was here.

Lester came to my side looking at the screens. "Leek, what the hell are you doing?" Lester asked.

"Now I want you to feel what it's like to be on the wrong end of your grand disdain, a little man looking up at the big boss." Leek's voice caused my skin to crawl. I could feel the panic in my chest as he spoke.

I looked over to Lester and then around the room, trying to see if I could spot what Leek had in mind for us. I noticed blood in the lab i was in earlier, whatever he had planned was already in effect. I couldn't tear my eyes away from the blood stained lab. "They've all gone, James." Leek said smoothly. "Either off on Cutter's wild goose chase or dead."

I spun back around to the monitors at what he said. "You knew that it was a trap then?" I said my chest beginning to rise and fall more noticeably. I was breathing harder, either out of fear or hatred. I honestly couldn't tell.

Before Leek could answer my question a creature fell from the ceiling in front of Lester and I. We both screamed at the suddenness of the creature and turned to run from it. Lester was ahead of my just by a foot so he could lead the way. He knew this building better than anyone else. I trusted him in keeping us alive. We ran down a familiar hallway as the lights shut off behind us. We were in the dark by the time we rounded a corner and stopped to catch our breath and hopefully lost the creature.

I closed my eyes trying to remember what the creature looked like in the split second that I saw it. It was nothing that I could remember from the past. "What the hell was that?" I whispered to him.

"Future predator." Lester whispered back. As soon as he said the words my hands began to sweat and disdain covered my body.

"I assume that's bad." I was able to whisper out.

"Really bad." he whispered back looking down another hall. He moved around me to reach something that he knew was on the other wall, just around the corner. The lights suddenly began to flicker on and off, he must have hit an emergency power source in an attempt to bring the power back on. He stood next to me as we watched the flickering lights. One moment it was darkness then it was light. The next time the light enveloped the hall the creature appeared earning a yelp from the both of us. The next flicker of light it was gone. The creature was toying with us. We began to walk backwards down the still dark hall, cautiously taking a step back every couple of seconds. Lester stood in front of me as I lead the way walking backwards. I had no idea where we were going or how we would get out of this. The light flickered on again showing the creature was closer, it gave out a growl of sorts before it disappeared in the darkness.

One flicker of light it was right in front of us, it moved its hand out in an attempt to catch us, scratching Lester across the chest sending both of us to the floor. We scrambled into the room we had fallen in. I regained my footing looking for anything I could use as a weapon. I noticed we had made it to the locker room, weights still lying around. Lester crawled over to the music box Abby was using just that morning and turned it on. I was confused as why he did that for a moment before I saw the creature writhe about in confusion.

"It see's by sound?" I yelled out, surprised I had a voice at all. Lester stood up and went around the other side of the locker room.

"Yes!" Lester yelled back I watched as he dove over the counter to another room. Looking around and realizing I only had weights to use as weapons I followed after him, jumping the best I could over the counter.

I looked around the new portion of the room and realized we had jumped into the armory and other tactical equipment we kept for anomaly sightings. A smile grew on my face looking at the arsenal of weapons. Lester and I both grabbed a gun. I went over everything that Stephen had taught me as I readied it to be fired. Lester looked over to me, impressed I knew how to handle the weapon. With a quick nod from me to him we began open firing at the creature.

The automatic rifle fire filled our ears as we fired at the creature, successfully hitting it as it came closer and closer to us. Lester's gun clicked empty as the creature dropped on the other side of the counter.

"Come on!" He yelled as he dropped his automatic rifle. I dropped mine and followed him as we headed towards the exit of the room. I eyed a handgun, grabbing it off the shelf as we exited the room.

We ran back to the center of the ARC, Leek's face still on the monitors grinning like a mad man. Lester walked over to where we had the mammoth contained and took the controller off the door. I stood over by the ramp, gun in my hand ready to shoot if necessary. Lester joined my side a couple seconds later. He looked down to the controller then back to me with a proud smirk. He clearly had something planned. "Leek, you're never gonna make me beg for my life, so let's just end it now." Lester said in his booming voice.

"All right, if you insist. Gentlemen are always first." Leek said. I heard the snarl of the creature. I watched in awe as it clung to the wall across from us, nearly on the ceiling. I lifted my hand with the gun and aimed it at the creature in case Lester's plan failed. I was shocked when I noticed the red light on top of the creatures head. It made sense on why it wasn't attacking us outright, since right now it had the perfect opportunity to take at least one of us out. The red light must be how Leek was controlling it. "Goodbye." Leek said.

"One more thing…" Lester said.

"Yes?" Leek answered. I was surprised he was giving Lester the time of day. However as far as Leek knew he had the upper hand and would kill us in a matter of moments.

"You really are a tiresome little man." Lester said before he hit the button on the controller. The door for the mammoth began to open at a horribly slow rate. I hoped whatever he had planned worked.

Lester's hand curled into my own. I glanced down to it then back up to his face, he closed his eyes. I heard a growl and looked over to the creature as it jumped off the wall and headed right at us. I closed my eyes in fear and squeezed Lester's hand firing off a shot. Completely terrified of dying in this moment. The mammoth trumpeted causing both of us to open our eyes. The creature was impaled on one of the mammoths tusks. We watched as the mammoth walked around the room triumphantly. I dropped the hand gun in shock that Lester's plan had worked. He let go of my hand both of us remembering to breathe. He dropped the controller and walked around in circles for a moment trying to calm down from our near death experience. I put my hands on my knees to control my breathing.

"Good boy. Good mammoth." he said breathlessly next to me. I let out a breathy laugh, realizing he was talking to the mammoth like a dog.

"How did you know that would work?" I asked him.

"Abby told me earlier that Mammoths would attack at potential prey. I figured this would count as prey." He said looking at the creature on the tusk.

"You're a gambling man." I said looking over to him with a smile.

"Apparently I am." He said smiling back to me.

Lester and I slowly moved around the mammoth to go to the clinic we had.

"We need to patch up that wound on your chest." I pointed out as we walked into the clinic. He sat down on the medical table waiting for me to find what I needed to patch him up. "So that is what a future predator looks like?" I asked as I looked through cabinets for gauze and sterilizing equipment.

"Yeah, and they hunt anything and everything." Lester winced as he moved slightly. "I am pretty impressed that you knew how to handle a gun."

I let out a laugh as I grabbed some iodine and cotton swabs. "It's one of Stephen's favorite date night ideas." I gave him a small smile as a door slammed open down the hall followed by many footsteps. The rest of the team had made it back. I leaned against the cabinet thankful that they were here.


	28. Bomb

It only took seconds for the team to find us in the clinic, one of them was thankfully a medic and began working on Lester to patch him up. He took off his button down shirt, showing a nice gash that the predator had left him. He threw his shirt in the trash, completely ruined now. Lester looked over to me as I insisted to one of the team mates I was unharmed.

"Skyla, I hate to ask, but in my office there should be another shirt, could you please fetch it for me?" Lester asked. I nodded and jogged up to his office and began to look for another shirt. I grabbed the first one I found and ran it back down to him.

He nodded a thanks as he took the shirt and the medic announced he didn't need stitched and began taping gauze to his chest after disinfecting it. I began chewing on my thumb nail, something I hadn't done since I was a kid as I watched him get patched up. Nick was right when he described the future predator as an incredible hunter. I wondered how well it did without the red light on its head. I then began to wonder if that was actually part of the creature since I had never seen one before.

I glanced at the door as Nick ran through and over to me, wrapping me into a relieved hug. He stepped away and began checking my body for injuries. "I'm fine Nick." I said with a smirk, happy that he was concerned about me. It made me feel loved.

He turned over to Lester as he wiggled into his new button down, still showing off the gauze ridden chest."What happened?" Nick asked.

"Future predator from our friend Leek." I answered him as Lester began to button his shirt.

"He was controlling it." Lester added, confirming my suspicions. He jumped off the table and straightened out his shirt before he continued to button it. "Why would Leek go to so much trouble trying to kill us?"

"I think that was just the icing on the cake." Nick said as we walked out of the clinic. "Surprisingly, I think there's something much bigger than just you going on here."

"Ah, I see. First I'm a traitor, now I'm insignificant." Lester said as he put on his tie. "You're really going to hurt my feelings."

"If Leek wanted to kill you, he could have just pushed you down a lift shaft, but he didn't, he studied the anomalies. If he wanted to get rid of Skyla, he would have told you not to let her on the team. No, he worked out how to control the future predator." Nick said as we walked through the doors to see Connor working on the computers. "Doesn't sound like just a petty grudge."

"You're saying we were guinea pigs to see how well the creature could be controlled?" I asked.

"Exactly." Nick said as we stopped about ten feet from Connor who was working vigorously on the computers.

"So what does he want? And, for the record, he did try to persuade me from hiring Skyla." Lester said.

"I don't know." Nick said as we stood there.

The mammoth trumpeted as it was being lead back into its hold. I smiled at the extinct creature, realizing it had saved our lives. "You know, my kids are really pestering me for a pet." Lester said as he finished tying his tie. "If you can't find a home for him…" Lester looked to Nick before he walked off.

"You sure you're okay?" Nick asked. I nodded in response. I eyed Jenny walking over to us looking none too happy. I walked over to Connor to avoid the confrontation.

"What's that about?" I asked looking back to Nick and Jenny feuding.

"He held a gun to her head thinking she was the traitor." Connor said not missing a beat or letting me distract him from what he was doing. "I understand you had your first encounter with a future predator?"

"Ugly bastards." I said as I straightened out my shirt. I tried to watch what Connor was doing but became dizzy. Before I could as what he was doing Abby walked over to us asking the question.

"Trying to track down Leek. There's got to be a clue in his personal files." Connor said still not breaking concentration.

"You alright?" Abby nodded towards me. I nodded again as she turned back to the screens. "Obviously know your way around."

"Mmm-hmm." Connor responded.

"Hack into them regularly, do you?" She asked Connor as he typed away.

"Oh, yeah. You'd be amazed how much Lester gets paid." Connor said.

"What's my middle name?" Abby asked.

Without skipping a beat Connor replied. "Sarah."

"Oh boy." I said as I looked around the room.

Everyone was back and working like nothing had happened. I wondered what they did with the body of the creature. Probably incineration considering the Secrets Act we all had to sign. I ignored Abby and Connor as he continued to type. Between Jenny and Nick feuding and the mishap Connor and Abby had I began to wonder about Stephen. _How would we even begin to bridge a conversation over recent events?_

"Got it!" Connor exclaimed pulling me from my thoughts. I turned back to him and the screens, noting Nick running over to see what he had found. "Password?" Slowly we drew a crowd with Lester and Jenny as Connor continued to try passwords that failed. "Mother's maiden name they always use that." Connor said.

"Murphy." Lester answered, confidentiality and rules thrown out the window.

Nick began to walk around the computers deep in thought. He stopped on the other side of the computers by the van. "Anomaly." Nick suggested.

"Way too obvious." Connor said.

"Well, just try it." Nick insisted.

"We're in!" Connor sin surprise as the files began to load on the screen.

Everything from his personal files, bank accounts and loads of other information now littered the screen. "It's a bomb. Everyone out now." Nick announced with alarm. I looked over behind the screens to Nick who stood by the van.

"What?" Jenny voiced what we were all thinking.

"Get out!" Nick screamed.

All of us began moving towards the exit, realizing that Nick was serious and there was a bomb. In an orderly but fast fashion we jogged and gathered outside of the building. The sun still high in the sky meaning it was barely afternoon. How could all of this happen in such a short amount of time?

"Where's Connor?" Abby asked as she looked around at the small crowd of people.

I began looking around as well noticing that Nick was also missing. "Where's Nick?" I asked.

"Oh my god they stayed behind to try and defuse the bomb." Jenny said, fear evident on her face.

We turned back to the building and counted the seconds down. No one spoke and it was eerily quiet as we waited for a horrible explosion with two of our members still inside. After three minutes, all of us holding our breath Connor walked out of the building giving us a thumbs up. Collectively the crowd let out a sigh of relief as we walked back into the building. Abby ran ahead of us over to Connor wrapping her arms around him in a similar hug that Nick had given earlier. Knowing that Connor had a crush on the girl I smiled for a moment. Watching them embrace one another, even if it was only a few seconds reminded me of Stephen and I after the mercreature incident. I looked down to the ground as we walked back into the ARC. I couldn't even say I had a relationship anymore. I had no idea where we stood or what we would say to one another the next time we saw each other.


	29. Kidnapped

After the excitement of the bomb we met in the lab to look at the device that was secured to the future predators head. It was an odd looking device with grips to keep it on and what looked like nails under the red light portion.

"What is it?" Jenny asked as she made her presence know.

"Uh, my guess is that it's some kind of neural clamp. It was surgically implanted in the skull of the predator. It must be how Leek was controlling it. The clamp is linked to the central nervous system, and it's operated by remote radio signals." Nick explained.

"I've never seen anything this advanced before." Connor said.

"Yeah, Leek isn't this smart." Nick said.

"You mean, he hotwired his brain by remote control." Abby said.

"How many times have you dealt with these creatures?" I asked.

"Only once before." Nick said looking up to me then looked out into the center of the ARC. "Using a remote control was where he's made a mistake. Any incoming radio signals are picked up by the detector right?" He turned to Connor.

"Yeah." Connor responded.

"So all we would have to do is track where this signal is transmitted from…" Nick said before Jenny spoke up.

"And that's where we'll find Leek." She interrupted him.

"I'm on it." Connor said as he and Jenny left the room.

"Should we call Stephen?" Abby asked the both of us. Nick and I looked at each other.

"Stephen's made his bed, let him lie in it." Nick said looking back to the device. Abby nodded and left the room.

"When you saw these creatures last it was in the other dimension wasn't it?" I asked. Nick looked up from the device back to me. "This was the predator you talked about when you told me about Claudia."

Nick nodded his head. "Yeah, it was the same predator."

I pondered the information that I knew about these futuristic predators. "Then how did it get here again? If you've only encountered one anomaly into the future, where did this one come from? How the hell did Leek get it?" I asked.

"That is a question we will have to ask him." Nick said as we walked out of the lab to join the others huddled again around Connor and his computers.

"Okay, I've put a visual trace on the signal that Leek was transmitting to the future predator." Connor explained as the screen changed.

"That's it? There's no chance you're making a mistake?" Lester said from behind us. He looked as determined as we were to find Leek.

"I don't do mistakes." Connor said as he glanced over to Nick who gave him a look. "Often. Not in this case. That's definitely the location."

"Come on, then." Nick said and he turned to leave.

"Where on earth do you think you're going?" Lester said causing Nick to stop. He walked back over to us as we were getting ready to follow him.

"Well, where do you think?" Nick asked.

"This operations no place for a civilian. The military will handle it, under my supervision." Lester said as he walked off to assemble his team of soldiers.

Nick looked towards all of us looking as defeated as we felt. With a sigh we went our separate ways. I walked up to the office and grabbed my grandfather's journal and walked back down. Abby and Connor were sitting at a table near the computers. Nick nowhere to be seen. The rest of the ARC was no empty meaning they had gone off already to find Leek.

I sat down near Abby and Connor and opened up the journal, hoping I would find something on the future time periods. And I hoped it would distract myself from my own thoughts. I glanced up as I heard footsteps from the catwalk aboved. Jenny stopped over by Nick who stood there staring into nothing. "I can trace her." Connor perked up. Abby and I looked over to him quizzically, wondering what the hell he was talking about.

"What? Who?" Abby asked.

"Caroline." Connor said as he placed his feet on the ground from resting on the desk. "You wanted me to get Rex back?" He asked Abby as he raced over to the computer. Abby ran after him, her curiosity peaked. My own curiosity peaked as well I got up and joined the two, fascinated how Connor could work computers. "I can trace Caroline's mobile through the detector."

"Oi, Connor, that's illegal use of government property." Jenny piped up on the catwalk. Connor ignored Jenny's words and continued to expertly moved his hands on the keyboard then began typing her number in.

"Why are we looking for Connor's ex?" I asked.

"She stole Rex." Abby responded.

"And that is?" I asked again before the screen blinked.

"That her?" Abby asked looking at the screens..

"Yup. Well, that's where her mobile is anyway." Connor said.

"Come on. She'd better still have him." Abby said with hope.

"We've found her! we're gonna go get Rex back." Connor said loud enough for Nick and Jenny to hear.

I stood there still in confusion at what Rex was. Nick looked down shaking his head as he muttered something to Jenny and came down the ramp. "I'll come with you." Nick yelled as the others walked to the garage. I looked to him as he passed by.

"What's a Rex?" I asked him walking along the side of him. Jenny right behind us.

"He's a Coelurosauravus from the Permian era, that Abby kept as a pet." Nick said frustration evident in his voice. "You coming with us?" he asked as we reached the garage. Jenny moved around us and got into the vehicle.

"No, I think I'm going to sit this one out. With the future predator and all, I'm exhausted. Plus I need to go pick up some things from Stephen's." I said, Nick stopped moving and turned to me.

"I'm sorry, Skyla." He said as his hand rested on my shoulder. I nodded to him knowing that there was nothing else I could say. "Take my car or one of the company vehicles." Before I could say no he thrusted the keys to one of the cars in the garage. "It'll be easier than a cab."

"Thanks." I said as he kissed my forehead and got into the car. I pulled out my mobile as they drove away and dialed Stephen's number, there was no answer.

With a sigh I looked for the car that the keys belonged to. I got in and drove over to Stephens. This was the main thing I hated about driving alone in a car. My mind would nitpick everything. I couldn't say with complete confidence that Stephen and I were over. But with everything that had happened in less than 48 hours I was certain that at the very least we needed a break to sort things out.

Who was I kidding we were probably over. He lied to me about seeing his former lover behind my back. Had he slept with her in recent time? Part of me wanted to cry. I wasn't entirely sure if it was out of heartbreak or anger. I pulled up to Stephens place and parked the car.

"You can do this Skyla." I said. I didn't have that many items here, but if we were really over I wanted those items. If we weren't, the clothes I had from the day before definitely needed to be washed.

I began what was now a long walk up to his door. I was surprised when I heard his door open I looked to the ground thinking of what I would say to him. I lifted my head with my eyes closed, "Stephen.." I said muttering out the words and loosing the rest when I opened my eyes. Helen stopped in her tracks as she looked over to me. Both of us stood there unable to move. "What the-" I began to say as a sharp pain was inflicted to the back of my head and darkness enveloped me.


	30. Leek Helen and Caroline

I could feel myself slowly waking up. I didn't want to open my eyes. I was uncomfortable but cozy at the same time. _Everything that happened must have been a dream. I would wake up on the floor of my home with Stephen smiling at me waiting for me to wake. I knew that had to be the reason I was on a hard surface. One of those intense love making sessions we would have where we didn't quite make it to the bedroom and the couch didn't fit the both of us._

 _Yes that had to be it._

The throbbing in the back of my head began to get worse as the more conscious I became, making all of those thoughts less real. I opened one eye and squinted in the lightly lit room. A fan circled lazily on the wall. I opened both of my eyes to a concrete room alone. I suddenly sat up remembering the last person I saw was Helen.

Helen was at Stephen's place.

Helen was walking out of Stephens flat when I arrived.

Then the sharp pain.

I moved my hand to the pain on the back of my head. A large goose egg confirming my thoughts. I had been hit in the back of the head by someone and kidnapped. I shut my eyes when the pain radiated through my head. I managed to crawl over to the cool concrete wall, propping myself against it.

As I tried to figure out how I got here, the door opened. I looked over to see Connor and Abby held at gunpoint being escorted into the room.

"Connor! Abby!" I said happy to see them but still confused as to how.

They looked over to me as they walked in, surprised that I was there, the door closing behind them. I bit through the pain, happy I was not in this situation alone, and stood up. I wobbled a bit as I walked over to them, embracing them in a group hug.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked them.

"Leek and Helen are working together." Abby said as we walked to where I had woken up and sat down. My whole world swirled around me as the pain increased. I sat down thankful to get some control of it.

"Is Stephen-" I began to ask as I rested my arm against my knee to support my head.

Abby shook her head. "I dont think so."

I looked around for a moment. "Where's Nick? And Jenny?"

"Helen moved them into a different room." Connor said shaking his head. "How did you get here?"

I shook my head and instantly regretted it. "I don't know. I went over to Stephen's to pick up some of my items and Helen walked out. The next thing I remember is waking up here."

We sat in silence for a couple moments thinking how to get out of this situation. "It gets better." Connor said. I looked over to him, trying not to jostle my head too much. "They have creatures from almost every anomaly we've encountered out there in cages. Helen's been collecting them with the help of Leek."

I stared at Connor in shock. Thinking of all of those extinct creatures in cages, just in the other room. They had no idea what century they were in. They would probably attack, violently, at any other living thing. "That's how they got the future predator. This is all Helen's doing." I realized out loud.

Before we could continue on with our conversation the door opened and Leek walked in, soldiers behind him as backup. Connor stood up as another woman was thrown into the room with us.

"Caroline!" Connor exclaimed as he walked over to Leek, Abby right behind him. Caroline walked over to the opposite corner I was in. I attempted to stand up but got dizzy in doing so. "You leave her out of this. She's nothing to do with this."

Leek just smiled at the younger man. "What?" Connor said looking between Leek and Abby.

"For someone really smart, you can be amazingly thick sometimes." Abby said. Connor looked over to Caroline before he turned back to Leek.

"No." He muttered under his breath.

"A girl like Caroline falling for a shambling, adolescent mess like you?" Leek said to Connor. I slowly got up this time, stumbling a bit and using the wall as a brace. How dare Leek use someone that way, and how dare he talk to Connor that way. "No, I don't think so." Abby looked over to Caroline with seething hatred. "I paid her to pick you up. You see, people like me and you, we don't get the pretty girls, Connor. They go for the pretty boys. We're the nerds, the losers, the uncool. Isn't that right Skyla?"

"Sod off!" I barked as I leaned against the wall.

"Speak for yourself. I do all right with women." Connor quipped back. Leek nodded his head with a smirk. "What? I do. I'm just… I'm choosy."

Abby ignored Connor and looked over to Caroline. "Where's Rex?" She asked.

"Who cares?" Caroline said as Abby walked over to her and wrapped her hand around her throat.

"I do. Now tell me." Abby said as Caroline smacked her hand off of her neck and shoved Abby. I held up my hands as a brace for her colliding with me. I looked over to see Caroline take off her jacket. They were going to duke this out like we were in a fight club.

"Beat her ass." I muttered to Abby as she took a step forward.

"I'm going to enjoy this Caroline." Abby said as she handed me her jacket.

"I don't want to hurt you Abby." Caroline said without much emotion.

"Don't flatter yourself." Abby countered.

I looked over to Connor who looked at Leek to stop this then turned to me. The pain in my head was beginning to dull. I stood straighter not leaning against the wall as much, in case Abby would need assistance. I doubt she would as I watched her throw in some really good punches and kicks. "We've got to stop this." Connor said looking from myself to Leek.

"Why? I think it's very entertaining." Leek said.

"You really are a sad little man, aren't you, Leek?" Connor said to him then turned to me. "Skyla?"

"Honestly, if Helen was in here it would be the same thing. It's healthy, in a way, Connor." I explained.

"Fine, I'll stop it." Connor said as he walked over to the two women brawling.

"Connor, I wouldn't-" I began as Abby threw back a punch, accidentally hitting Connor. He groaned as he walked over to stand between Leek and I. I moved closer to Connor. "Connor, you never try to break up a girls fight. 9 times out of 10 you get hurt in the process." He continued to check his mouth and nose for blood. Caroline pinned Abby down to the ground as Abby began to pull her hair. Connor looked up to me with pleading eyes to help. "Fine, you take Abby, I've got Caroline." I said as we walked over to the woman and pulled them apart.

"That's enough!" Connor said as we pulled them apart. "Stop! Stop! Stop!"

Caroline brushed me off as Connor held Abby in his arms. Both of them panting for breath. "Thanks, Connor." Caroline said in between breaths.

"I didn't do it for you." Connor admitted looking up to his ex.


	31. Extinct Creatures

It had only been ten minutes or so since the brawl had ended. Everyone was settling down nicely, however I made sure to position myself between the two other women just in case. We had been lead into a new room that looked the same dreary cement way as the other had. No one had said much, Leek continued to stand there smirking menacingly. Before anyone could even think of saying anything to the man the door opened again as Jenny was led into our room.

She looked instantly relieved when she noticed all of us standing together. "Abby, Connor, Skyla!" she said as she walked into the room over to us.

"Jenny." Abby said with a soft smile.

"How are you? You okay? How did you get here?" Jenny asked us placing her hands on Abby's and Connor's arms.

Subconsciously I lifted my arm to feel the growing lump on my head. "I was kidnapped." I said.

"Yeah, we're fine. How's Cutter?" Connor asked.

Jenny nodded. "He's okay. He's fine."

"And how are you?" Abby asked.

"I'm all right." Jenny said.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, it's all very touching." Leek interrupted the moment between us. "Now if you don't mind." He said as he pushed a green button on the wall opening another door and walked out looking back for us to follow. Caroline walked after him then myself and the others. "You wanted answers?"

We walked into a larger room full of extinct creatures in cages. Caroline repeated her oh my god's under her breath as she walked into the room. I was speechless as I noticed a smilodon, raptors, mer-creatures and sand scorpions amongst others. I gaped at all the animals around me, snarling and growling, in complete awe that they were here to begin with. My eyes began to water when I realized I had not blinked.

"Let me go please. I won't say anything." Caroline said interrupting my shock.

"You didn't know?" Abby said her arms crossed in front of her. Caroline shook her head no as she looked at all of the extinct creatures.

"You're just in time for dinner." Leek said. A siren sounded above us as slabs of meat fell through tubes inside the cages. We watched as the two raptors wrestled for the slab in their small cage. Their tails smacking into the laser sides. "Of course, they prefer to hunt for their own food, but it's amazing how quickly they can be trained."

"It's barbaric, that's what it is." I said as I watched the mer-creature struggle to pick up a fish from the ground.

"Rex!" I heard Abby say as she ran over to a cage.

"It's just like a prehistoric zoo. We do this to the animals of our time, what's the difference?" Leek said.

"First off with zoo's they have larger habitats. Is that what you plan to do with them? Build a zoo? I can give you a novel that proves why that's a bad idea." I said back to Leek.

I swore I heard Leek growl at me under his breath. It could've very well been one of the creatures, but the look on his face, being challenged read that it was from him. "Alright show and tell is over. Go back into the room." he said fed up.

Again we were lead through the maze of this abandoned warehouse into the room that we were originally in. We went to our own portion of the room, like school children in time out. Abby and Connor sat together on one wall, I sat on the opposing wall and Jenny and Caroline on opposite sides to the side of us.

I sat in complete shock. I knew what I was getting into when I joined the team. I had read through the journal. I understood that the anomalies were doorways into the past. Even with all that knowledge… Nothing could prepare you to see those creatures alive and moving. It was terrifyingly beautiful to see them.

"I'm going to wake up soon. I know I am. This is just a dream." Caroline whined in her area, breaking me from my amazed recent memories.

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Stop sniveling, for goodness sake." she said.

"Come on, be nice." Connor said to Jenny.

"You know, I knew there was something fake about her." Abby said. Connor gave her a look. "The way she was all so lovey-dovey and never even let you kiss her."

"Wait, she's your ex and you never kissed?" I asked Connor.

"She did, eventually." Connor said before he looked over to Abby. "Just never when you were around." I let out a small chuckle.

"Well, couldn't you tell she was faking it?" Abby asked. Connor let out a breath. "Nevermind."

"Most men cant." I said offering Connor the benefit of the doubt.

"I hate myself for what I did to you." Caroline piped up, killing the play banter between friends. All eyes on her at the seriousness in her voice. "I was greedy and stupid. I'm sorry."

I sat there and thought about Stephen. _Where he was and what he was doing.? Did he know that I had been kidnapped? Did he know that all of us were being held hostage? Was he a part of it?_ I bit my lip out of anger and frustration towards the man. He would surely get a tongue lashing when I saw him next.

Just then the door opened again revealing the soldiers. No Helen or Leek. They told us to follow them. None of us moved as a small form of protest. One of the soldiers fired his weapon into the ceiling and let out a loud command. All of us, stunned at the lengths they were willing to go, got up and followed them out into the hall and into another much larger room. They promptly left us in there.

An alarm began blaring into the room. We looked around to see what was going on, confused at what the noise was and where it was coming from. "What's happening?" Caroline asked as we stood in the middle of the large room.

"Nothing good." Connor answered her.

"It sounds like the siren for dinner in the other room." I said looking over to the others.

"Are you saying we're dinner?" Caroline asked in a panicked voice.

"Yeah." I pointed out. I didn't want to sugar coat it for her in case we were dinner. There was no use in that.

My eyes darted from one end to the room to the next to see if any creatures would appear. "But for what?" Abby said as a door slid open revealing the smilodon. We all moved closer together as the large cat walked into the room and began pacing in front of us. We watched as it calculated the weakest spot in our huddled group.

"Oh, we've gotta get out." Caroline whispered. I glanced over to her and watched her leave our group and ran towards the wall. "Let me out!" Abby ran after her grabbing her arm and bringing her back to the group.

"No! We have to stick together. It'll pick off any stragglers first. Stay together." She hissed.

"Don't worry, guys. Cutter will get us out of this." Connor said as the cat continued to pace.

"Well, he'd better do it soon." Jenny said as we stood close together.

I had no idea how Nick would get us out of this, or if he even knew the predicament we were in. Abby slowly broke away from the group, staring down the smilodon. "Abby!" Connor whispered screamed at her. "What are you doing?"

"I know this creature." She whispered back never breaking her eye contact with the animal. "It's the one that killed Valerie."

"I thought Leek said it was dead." Jenny said.

"He looks pretty well to me." Connor said.

"It has to decide if I'm dangerous." Abby said still staring the creature.

"Then what?" Jenny asked.

"Then it eats me." Abby said.

"That doesn't sound like a good plan!" I whispered.

The smilodon continued to walked towards Abby, successfully beginning to corner her into the wall. That's how cats hunted if they knew their prey could see them, it's how most predators did, they would corner their prey so they had nowhere to run when they attacked. Within a millisecond the smilodon was in the air leaping towards Abby. "Abby!" Connor yelled out concerned for her. Abby successfully dove out of the way from the large animal as it crashed into a circuit box, damaging the contents inside causing a door to open. Noting that the smilodon was shocked and confused, it ran off back to where it came, as we ran towards Abby and the open door.

Connor picked up Abby from the floor. "What about Cutter?" Abby asked as Connor led her through the door.

"He'd want us to go!" Jenny said as she was the last one to come through the door. "We've got to get up to ground level."

We ran up and down various hallways and stairs looking for a way to the main level. A couple of soldiers had spotted us, shooting off warning shots as we rounded a corner down another hallway. Connor stopped in front of a yellow utility door. "Come on, let's try this way!" Connor said as he lifted a door to reveal a large dinosaur just inside. All of us screamed and jumped back in shock.

"It's okay! A scutosaurus." Abby yelled out as we looked down the hall to see shadows of soldiers coming out way. "Come on!" She lead the way around the giant cow like dinosaur. We were all behind it when we realized we had hit a dead end.

"We need to hit it!" Connor said as he smacked the dinosaur, who didn't even budge.

"What?" I asked as Connor continued to smack it.

"No, wait, wait wait." Jenny said as she took off her shoe and smacked the heal into the dinosaurs rear.

It began moving, knocking over the soldiers as they tried to move around it to get to us. We had our own personal live battering ram. It continued on the down the hallway leaving the soldier that was following us behind on the ground. Jenny kicked him while he was down and grabbed his automatic rifle. "I'll take that thank you." Jenny said as I picked off a pocket knife from the soldier.

We exchanged looked and continued down the hallway from before. A thought occurred to me as we were running. "Wait!" I yelled, everyone turned around to me. "If all of the doors are unlocked like with the scutosaurus was, I think that means that all the other creature are probably lose to." The realization of this could be read on everyone's faces. "We need to tread lightly, we're not just running from those soldiers, we're running from the creatures too."


	32. Stephen and Helen

**Alright everyone the story is almost over. As mentioned in the summary of the story it is Canon. I'm sorry... kinda... there will be a part 2 though so... Review and enjoy.**

We had zigged and zagged down various hallways and into several rooms. In one particular dark hallway I was turned around and lost the others. I stood there in a small panic that all I had to protect myself was a small pocket knife that wouldn't do much against one of the raptors, possibly not even a soldier. I followed along the pipes on the wall, hoping they would lead me to the main level. I turned the corner down a dark red lite hallway. I heard a footstep and squeezed myself into a small crevice until I was sure it was safe.

I slowly got out of my makeshift hideaway and continued on following the pipes. Halfway through the hall they turned down a smaller hall. Deciding I had not much left to lose, especially by myself I would follow them. I walked into a large room, it looked like some sort of water supply for the building. As I rounded one last corner I was shocked to see blonde locks sitting a little was away from where I stood.

"Nick?" I asked the blonde man, who turned a little stunned at the presence of someone else. I walked over to his form."Oh, Nick. I was so scared, I got separated from the others and got lost."

I looked down as he still sat and saw he was too lost. Not so in the sense of the present but in general. His big blue eyes always betrayed his feelings. I sat next to him on the stairs.

"How are you even here?" He Scottish accent seeming more thick as it echoed off the pipes.

I looked at my hands then over to him. He stared out into nothing looking pensive. "Helen kidnapped me outside of Stephens." I explained. He nodded briefly before he went back into his pensive stare.

Something had obviously happened to the man since I saw him last. My guess it had to be Helen, it seemed to be the best answer as of late. I looked out into the darkness that seemed to draw him in. The only noise that greeted us was the small constant drip of water hitting the pool below.

"I'm so sorry Skyla. I should've never involved you in this." He whispered.

I looked over to him, still staring, and reached out to his hand but thought better of it. I shook my head as I stared back out to the empty space. "No, I wanted to be here. I wanted to do this with you and Stephen." I said as I looked own and began to pick a hangnail. After a couple beats I glanced over to him. "Do you think he's involved in all of this?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't know anymore. Helen talked about creating a new and better future. She said that Jenny was proof we can control the anomalies. She wants to change the present to see what happens in the future. She thinks they appeared so we could fix it. She could have easily convinced Stephen." He explained. I shook my head and rested it in my hands. "She's brought back dozens of the future predators."

I was shocked but not shocked enough to lift my head. Considering all the other animals in the other room, it didn't surprise me. "I hate that woman." I muttered under my breath. Nick snorted as we embraced the silence around us.

We couldn't have been there for a couple minutes when footsteps ruined our almost meditative spot followed by voices. They continued to get closer and closer to where we were. Nick didn't look shocked or bothered by the potential danger. I sat next to him just accepting that whatever happened, happened. "There's no time. Forget about Lester, it's too late." I recognized the voice as Helen's as she now entered the room.

I looked up and over to the catwalk on the other side of the room as she walked across it. "We finish this now, Helen." Stephen's voice picked up. My eyes shot to where I heard his voice as he trailed along behind her. My heart sank into my stomach at seeing him here in this warehouse hellhole. He stopped on the catwalk and glanced over to where Nick and I were sitting. Our eyes locked as we stared at each other. I registered that Helen had said something but refused to look away from Stephen. He didn't even flinch making me believe he also didn't care at what she was saying. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Nick looked over to the both of them.

"You said they were dead." Stephen said breaking our eye contact to look over at Helen. "What have you done?"

I shook my head finally finding my voice. "Not you, too." I said, my eyes beginning to water at the potential betrayal.

"Don't tell me you knew about this." Nick accused Stephen.

"Oh, I've never seen this place before in my life." Stephen said to the both of us.

"I told you the truth! Lester brought me here!" Helen pleaded to Stephen.

"Bullshit!" I yelled. "You kidnapped me and brought me here from Stephen's flat, you lying bitch." I said as I stood up. Nick held a hand out so I couldn't move.

"You ask her. Ask her about what she really wanted to do. Go on, ask her about Leek. Ask her about how many people are gonna die." Nick said.

"He's trying to trick you." Helen said.

Stephen looked between Nick and I with shock written on his face. He looked back over to Helen. "I so badly wanted to believe in you." Stephen seethed. "But that doesn't put you in the right!" He yelled pointing to Nick.

"Stephen please!" I pleaded with him to realize that we were not in the wrong.

"There's a whole army of predators in here." Nick said as he stood next to me. "If any of them make it above ground, there's gonna be nobody left. now, if you want to help people, we have to do this!"

"They're too powerful, Nick. Nothing you can do." Helen said matter-of-factly. She had brought them here and now she didnt care what happened to them or the world.

"Well, then, you're gonna have to think of something, or we're all gonna die. Now you brought them here. You know them." Nick said. I looked up to Nick, his face was red from anger. I had never seen him this livid before, frankly it scared me. I looked back over to Stephen with hopeful eyes. Maybe we could solve this all here and now. Maybe we still had a shot since everything had now come out of the bag.

"The siren." Helen said. "The creatures associate the sound with food." Nick began to move over to the catwalk, I followed so we could meet them. "They'll come back to the cage room whenever it sounds."

Nick stopped on the catwalk right in front of Stephen, Helen came up from behind Stephen. The two of them stared at one another. I looked up to Stephen when I stopped walking. "Then if we can lock them in with the predators, then they'll destroy each other." Nick thought out loud. I looked over to Helen, wanting to punch her in the face so bad, at the very least give her a nice goose egg on her head to feel my pain. I glanced at Stephen wanting to slap him across the face and then kiss him. Come on then." Nick said turning around, leading the way back into the warehouse.

I stood my ground as Helen brushed past Stephen, colliding her shoulder into mine and followed after Nick. I scoffed at the action but ignored it, knowing one day I would get to have my brawl with her, but this was not the time or the place. Without saying a word to Stephen as we stared at each other I turned to follow the others. I could faintly feel his hand on my lower back, a small form of comfort in this situation. I relished the warmth of his touch and wanted to snap at him for even thinking that was okay.


	33. Sacrifice

Nick seemed to know exactly where he was going because within minutes we ran into the room with all of the cages. The place was empty as I had suspected before. Nick ran over to the dangling cord of buttons and pressed the green button, successfully turning the siren on. The entire facility was echoing with the noise. We stood in the room for a moment to make sure this plan the two had cooked up would actually work. You could faintly hear the snarls and roars of creatures heading in our direction.

"It's working. Let's get out of here." Nick suggested. I looked up to him and nodded, thinking that was the best idea of the day.

"I'll seal the door. Nothing will get out." Helen said as Nick ran past her towards a door. It was the same door where I had first entered the room with our other group. I wondered if they had made it out of here.

Nick jogged through the door, then myself and Stephen. Our jog came to a slow walk as we made it to the other side of the door and began going down the hall. We heard a small yelp and a thump. We looked around to see Helen on the ground right near the door. The door couldn't close because her body was in the way, making it so the animals could still get out.

I stood there staring at the situation, debating on kicking her and letting her be food for the animals. The thought terrified myself as I ran over to her aid with Stephen and Nick. Every fiber of my being screamed at me not to help her as I held the door with Stephen, not letting it close more than it already had on Helen's body. Nick tried to pull Helen though the door, a raptor on the other side had her leg in it's mouth.

"Shoot it Stephen." Nick said referring to the raptor. Stephen struggled to get his gun out of his waistband. Nick kicked at the automatic door button to keep it from crushing her further, knowing that Stephen and I couldn't hold it forever. As soon as he hit it the door stopped trying to close and Stephen pulled the trigger shooting the raptor.

Helen fell on top of Nick and crawled over him. "The creatures almost here." She said. All of us stood up, without so much as a thank you from the woman, Helen began walking towards the hall like nothing had happened at all. Stephen gave us a look before he followed her. Nick stood behind trying to get the door closed, when I noticed it wouldn't move, I went to his side to assist. The door was jammed open. "Come on, Nick." Helen said, Nick and I both looked in her direction, she was right next to the entrance of the hallway, Stephen off to her side.

"Wait we can close the door." Nick said as we struggled again to push the door closed. Nick looked over to Helen as she gave him a pleading look to leave. I leaned against the door, the adrenaline rush brought the familiar throbbing ache to my head. Nick walked over to Helen. "Otherwise they're gonna get back out."

I lifted my hand to my head, squinting at the pain. "We can only do that from in there now." Helen said. The blood from my face drained. I looked up to all of them realizing our mistake in saving Helen. The pain subsided for a brief moment and was replaced with panic and fear. The control's on the other side, but whoever does it will be locked in. I slowly joined the group not wanting to believe what was happening.

"Then one of us has got to go back in." Nick said.

I looked around at all of us. I couldn't bear to think about letting go of either Nick or Stephen. They were both valued assets as well to ARC and figuring out what exactly was going on. I looked over to Helen, the thorn in everyone's side. "You should go." I said, everyone turned to me, not used to me being so forward. I ignored their looked and stared right into Helen's eyes. "You created this mess, it should be you." Helen looked looked like she could tear my head off if she had the chance. It was like two lionesses on the prairie gearing up for a fight.

She went to say something, Nick's hand came up to stop her. "I'll do it." He said now all eyes on him.

"You'll never make it out." Stephen pointed out.

I shook my head, the pain before completely gone in fear. "There has to be another way." I said.

Nick looked over to me. "Get out of here." He said as his arms around me. "It's gonna be alright." he whispered before he moved over to Stephen. "Just remember, Lester's not the enemy." He whispered to Stephen before he walked over to the door.

"Nick please." Helen said as Stephen shook his head. Nick turned around to say something to Helen when he was struck in the face with a punch from Stephen.

"Stephen!" I yelled surprised at the sudden outburst. He walked over to me and pulled me close. He slammed his face against mine in a heated sudden kiss. By the time I opened my eyes to say what he was thinking, he was on the other side of the door.

"Stephen!" Nick yelled as he stood up from being disoriented. He stumbled over to the now closed door. I ran over to Nick, standing to his side as we looked through the small circular window. Stephen stood on the other side of the window with a certain confident sadness. I could feel my heart slowly begin to crack.

"Sorry, mate, I'm doing this one." Stephen said looking at Nick.

"No, open the door! open it!" Nick screamed.

"Can't do it Nick. Cant take the risk." Stephen said shaking his head.

I looked up to the man I loved wishing that everything in the last couple of days hadn't happened. I wished that this was just a terrible dream and we would wake up in bed. My eyes began to water as I remembered how perfect waking up next to him had been this morning. "Oh, Stephen, what have you done?" I said, tears began to slowly began to run down my cheeks.

He looked over to me, his pale blue eyes looked so dark in color. "I'm so sorry for everything."

"Stephen, Open the door!" Nick screamed again, refusing to believe any of this was happening.

Stephen didn't even flinch at Nicks outburst. "I love you." he said as the tears began to fall faster. I placed my hand on part of the glass.

"I love you too." I choked out, slowly losing my grip on reality as I watched him back away from the door.

"Tell Abby and Connor to stay out of trouble." Stephen said as he gave us his infamous smirk.

His smirk slowly feel, replaced with a look of fear and pain. The smilodon circled around behind him as a raptor came into view of the window circling his font. A future predator hung on the wall.

I pounded on the door trying to distract the creatures, knowing it would do nothing. "Stephen!" I screamed as the creatures all began to close in. He looked down to the ground then back up to us, within seconds a raptor leapt onto him sending him to the ground. I heard someone screaming, thinking it was Nick until I was forced to suck in air realizing it was me screaming. I sunk to the ground sobbing as the scene of the creatures jumping on him replayed over and over again in my mind. Nick slowly sank to the ground next to me and began to sob. My heart collectively shattered in that moment.

I don't know how long we sat there sobbing, or when we had gotten closer to one another and cried on each others shoulders. It wasn't until Abby and Connor shook us that I realized we were still at the door in the damned warehouse.

I looked around at the soldiers and our two teammates in front of us. Helen was nowhere to be seen. My hatred for the woman was growing more and more by the moment. Stephen would still be here if it wasn't for her. "Where's Helen?" I muttered out between my clenched jaws. Abby shook her head answering my question, she didn't know.

"Where's Stephen?" Connor asked Nick, who just realized there were people there. He motioned his hand to the other side of the door. Connor looked between us before he looked through the small window. I heard his intake of breath before he backed away, tears filling his eyes. Abby looked over to him then to us, realizing that Stephen was gone.


	34. Funeral

**Thank you everyone for following this story! This is the end for this portion. Go and vote in the poll for part 2! Reviews are always welcomed and enjoyed.**

It had been a couple of days since the warehouse incident.

A couple of days since Stephen had sacrificed himself to save Nick and I.

No one had seen or heard from Helen. None of us had been to work, or talked. Nick stayed at my place the first night and day, neither of us quite wanting to be alone.

The light streamed in through the bedroom, bright and sunny as it usually was. In my world it was still dark as night. I rolled away from the harsh sun, wishing I was rolling into his arms. I opened my eyes to the empty side of my bed. Stephen was gone and he wasn't coming back.

I heard a light knock at the door. I thought about laying there and ignoring it, but the knocking continued to get louder and more urgent. With a growl I stumbled out of bed and walked down the hall to the door. When I opened it I was greeted by Abby and Connor.

At first I could tell neither of them knew what to say, I could only imagined how I looked. I didn't even care. Abby moved closer to me until I moved out of the way to let her into the house. I rolled my eyes and let Connor come in after her. Connor looked at his watch before he spoke. "You have ten minutes to get ready."

"For what?" I asked. Both of them stood and stared at me.

"The funeral. It's today." Abby said with sadness. She walked over to me and lead me into the bathroom. "Splash some water on your face and brush your teeth and hair. I'll get you something to wear." She said as she closed the door.

I stood in front of the mirror and stared at my unrecognizable reflection. _Was today really Stephens funeral?_ I shook my head as I followed the instructions Abby had told me. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and hair. I even attempted to put on some makeup to cover my puffy tear streaked face. I didn't realize how much time had gone by or what day it was, let alone how much I had cried. There was a soft knock at the door as it opened. Abby's head poked in.

"You alright love?" She asked softly as I nodded. She stuck her arm through the crack in the door and handed me one of my black dresses. "Just put that on there and we'll go." She nodded and closed the door giving me my privacy again. I effortlessly put on the dress, the hem of it rubbing against my calfs. I wouldn't admit it right now but I was thankful that Abby and Connor thought enough to come and get me. I never would have forgiven myself for not showing up to Stephens funeral.

I walked out of the bathroom and walked over to my room and grabbed my flats. I walked out and headed towards the front door, Abby and Connor were already waiting for me. They had matching sorrowful faces. None of us wanted to go but none of us couldn't imagine not being there. We silently walked out of my flat and into the car.

The drive was silent, not even the radio was on as we pulled up to the Kensal Green Cemetery. We walked slowly to where the people had gathered near his grave site. Numb. That was the only way I could describe the feeling coursing through me as we stood next to his grave. One of Stephen's family members that I never got the chance to meet was handing out calla lilies to place on his grave. He handed one to me and I forced a fake homely smile as I took it in my hand.

A couple of people made some loving speeches of memories and jokes he had told, again family members I never got to meet. There were songs sung, hymns and the like. All the while I just stared at the mound of dirt in front of me, knowing he was probably not in the casket below, and if he was only parts of him. A couple of tears fell down my cheeks at the memory. Before too long, my tears had stopped. I had cried enough the last couple of days, they could no longer produce more.

I waited until after the family had enough time to place their lilies on the grave before I placed mine. My eyes shut as I laid the lily down, whispering aloud his last words to me.

I love you.

I stood back up and stood next to Nick who had shown up before us. We watched as everyone else came over and placed their lilies. Neither one of us acknowledge each other. Eventually the crowd began to thin. Connor and Abby began walking over to the car, knowing I would want to stand here a little longer with Nick.

Once we were relatively alone I cleared my throat. "Nick." I muttered out. I could see him in my peripheral vision look over to me. "If I ever see Helen again, I'm going to put a bullet in her skull." I couldn't tell if Nick was shocked by my words or hurt by them. No, Nick barely acknowledge that I had spoke. "I'm sorry." I whispered to him as I moved a little closer to him and gave him a hug before I started walking off in the direction Abby and Connor did.

It was something I took pride in, being passive. I wasn't a violent person, never really thought more than maybe punching someone in the face. Even then it would have to be for a good reason. I was a nice and happy person.

Helen changed that. She changed a lot of things.

I noticed ahead of me Lester was talking to Connor and Abby. Connor's eyes met mine as I approached them and Lester walked off to talk to Nick.

Abby cleared her throat. "There's an anomaly. We understand-" she said before I held my hand up.

"I'm going to sit this one out. I'll take your car home and you guys can go with Nick." I said, surprised my voice was no longer strained with trying not to sob. It seemed like my confession to Nick had cleared that up for me. She nodded and gave me her keys before both of them gathered me into a hug.

They walked off as Nick and Jenny joined them by his truck. I knew that I wasn't in the right mind to go on a mission right now. Neither were they, especially Nick, but if he felt he could do it then more power to him. I sat in Abby's car for a moment just remembering everything that Stephen and I had during the short amount of time we were together.

I could now say I had loved and lost in an unimaginable way. I could also say I knew what it was like to truly hate someone.

Stephen sacrificed himself to save Nick and I. He sacrificed himself for the world and the only ones would know are us.

 **Skyla will return in Shelter.**


End file.
